Written by Nikki Silvestri, Executive Director of Green For AllCross-posted on BET.com. Read original post here.

Introducing Green For All’s new executive director Nikki Silvestri.

It’s not often that a life-changing revelation arrives via email. But that’s what happened to me in February when I received the results of a genetic test I ordered to track my ancestry. When I opened the message, I discovered that, based on my DNA, my forbears likely came from Cameroon, Congo, Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, as well as Ireland and Great Britain. I was stunned by the power of this revelation. Like most Black Americans, my family has never known the geography of where we came from—our ancient history was lost to slavery.

Written by Nikki Silvestri, Executive Director, Green For AllCross-posted on Huffington Post. Read original post here.

When I was a little girl growing up in Los Angeles, I would spend summer afternoons in the backyard of my grandmother's home in South L.A., on Harvard and Martin Luther King Boulevard. I remember picking fresh berries off the bushes in her garden, and waiting for her to wash them and stir them with some sugar for me. My first contact with the environment was through those berries -- through food -- and it was magic. Food was something my grandmother and mother nourished me with. It came straight from the earth, from soil. It represented love. And as a result, the first way I interacted with the natural world was through love. But it wasn't all that simple. As a small child, I also developed asthma, probably as a result of the airport and oil fields near my home. I was hospitalized for the first time with an asthma attack when I was six years old. It was hard, not being able to double dutch or play tag during recess -- my inhaler followed me everywhere.

Written by Jeremy Hays, Chief Strategist for State and Local Initiatives of Green For AllCross-posted on Huffington Post. Read original post here.

In 1995, a severe heat wave struck Chicago, killing more than 700 people. The disaster hit some neighborhoods much harder than others. For the most part, its devastation closely traced the city's economic and ethnic segregation. More people died in places like Englewood, a South Side neighborhood with a history of poverty and crime, and a largely African-American population; yet some neighborhoods with this same demographic fared remarkably well. Just adjacent to Englewood, the Auburn Gresham community -- also poor and black -- weathered the disaster far better than many of the city's wealthy white communities.

Every day of the week, The Pollination Project (www.thepollinationproject.org) provides $1,000 in seed funding to an individual who is working to make the world -- or just their own community -- a better, more peaceful and more sustainable place. Here are the extraordinary people and ideas changing the world this week:

It’s no secret that the prison system in America is broken, but the statistics are pretty shocking. The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, and 23% of the world’s prison population – that equals roughly 1 in 100 adults that are in prison. The problem is complicated and hits on hotbed issues like gun control, racism, the war on drugs, sentencing laws, overcrowding, privatization of public services, and prison profits supporting politicians and political agendas that keep us all, metaphorically speaking, locked in.

Becoming a mother last year fundamentally shifted the way I think about leadership and how we create a more just and healthy world. I've realized that one of the biggest barriers to our progress is shame. It's what keeps us feeling isolated and prevents us from realizing that we share the same struggles, and the same hopes. And it's especially evident among women (like me) who are fighting to balance our careers with the demands of parenting.

Written by Eric K Arnold and New America MediaCross-posted on Oakland Local. Read original post here.

…Energy efficiency is particularly critical in affordable housing developments, says Jeremy Hays, Chief Strategist for State and Local Initiatives at Green For All, a sustainability advocacy group with offices in Oakland and Washington, D.C. According to Hays, apartment buildings built before 1970 use 55 percent more energy than those built after 1990, while low-income residents spend 400 percent more of their monthly income on utility bills than the average American. Furthermore, affordable housing owners—a segment which includes public housing agencies and non-profit real estate developers—are constrained by rising utility bills; energy consumption in the US has steadily increased nearly every year since 1985, a trend which shows no signs of reversing.

The one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy last month spurred renewed conversation about making communities more resilient in the face of extreme weather and disasters. President Obama moved the conversation from talk to action by signing an executive order requiring all federally funded projects to address the impact of global warming, and creating a task force of state and local leaders who will help shape climate resilience efforts.

With U.S. EPA's work on a national stormwater regulation stalled, a pair of congressional Democrats are trying again to move a bill aimed at spurring innovative solutions to one of the country's largest water pollution problems.

The timing is significant. Just a few days after the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, when President Obama stood among the rubble and vowed to do something about climate change, he issued an Executive Order designed to encourage Americans to incorporate climate change awareness into their activities and plans.

Green is in. Several Historically Black Colleges and Universities are working with the environmental education organization Green For All’s “College Ambassadors” program to improve the environment at their schools and to foster a green economy.

One year ago this week, we all received an unforgettable warning about the potential of climate change to alter our lives. When Hurricane Sandy struck the Atlantic coast it destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, and worse -- it cut short the lives of 150 residents.

HBCU students gathered at Powershift 2013 to talk solutions to climate change.

It’s been said that the movement of this generation is the fight against climate change. And there is no better evidence of that than Powershift—an energetic gathering of more than 6,000 students and activists from around the country with a vision of a healthier planet and a clean energy economy.

Last year, after having a baby, I moved back to the town where I grew up—a poor, polluted part of the Bay Area. One of the most striking things about coming home has been the experience of living in a place where access to wholesome food and healthy lifestyle choices is severely limited. That would be bad enough on its own. But now, to add insult to injury, our leaders in Washington, D.C. are kicking low-income folks while they’re down.

When the Chicago Transit Authority opened up its bid for $2 billion for the manufacturing of more than 850 rapid transit cars for its subway and urban train system, it also requested bidders detail how they would create quality jobs for Chicago’s growing unemployed.

PITTSBURGH — Thousands of young environmentalists from around the country are heading to Pittsburgh, planning to strengthen the green movement by involving more people of different races and backgrounds.

...Our guest today on Sea Change Radio is Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, one of those eloquent and powerful figures. In spite of personal attacks from those who would silence her, Ms. Ellis-Lamkins perseveres in the fight to nurture a green economy that helps to empower traditionally disenfranchised communities.

Everyone’s talking about jobs—how to create new jobs, how to lift low-wage jobs or how to get jobs to depressed areas of the country—and the question I always come back to is, how do we make sure those jobs are good enough to sustain a life, or a family?

As we work to build a healthy green economy, Latinos in America have a critical role to play. It's not just because of growing influence at the voting booth. Latinos make up a huge portion of our workforce -- and it's getting bigger every day. By 2050, a projected 33 percent of American workers will be Latino.

The first time I knew that being poor made me different than everyone else was when my mom sent me into the grocery store to get food with food stamps. We had just picked up our free cheese at the food bank. I was running into the store to get pickles for the cheese and pickle sandwiches that I took to school everyday. A woman behind me smirked and made a comment about food stamps being used for snacks. She had a cart full of groceries and she was judging our family based on the jar of pickles and food stamps. I did not understand what I had done wrong. I knew I was supposed to be ashamed and I was.

Food is not a luxury. It's a fundamental resource -- one that too many people in our wealthy country struggle to find each day. A staggering 16 million kids in the U.S. live in homes where the simple act of eating isn't a sure thing. They don't know where their next meal will come from or if there will be a meal at all.

Chances are, you probably don’t know that one of the best environmental voting records on Capitol Hill belongs to the Congressional Black Caucus. Our African-American leaders in Washington, D.C. — like CBC Chair Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio), Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) — have consistently served as some of the fiercest champions protecting America’s clean air and water. They’ve also advocated for creating the kind of jobs that help, not harm, public health.

As our nation pauses to observe Labor Day this week, you have to wonder what the future holds for American workers. Rising income inequality, a dwindling middle class, the growth of low-wage jobs without benefits, and unemployment rates that remain uncomfortably high should make us wonder whether we've allowed the American Dream to become a mythic fairy tale.

This week, tens of thousands of people from across America are streaming into the nation’s capital to observe the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington — and Green for All will be among them.

Despite America’s wealth, many in our nation go hungry each day. A staggering 16 million children in this country live in homes where food isn’t a sure thing. Among African-American kids, the statistics are much worse. Nearly one-third don’t know where their next meal will come from—or if there will be a meal at all.

America may be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the number of people who go hungry each day. A staggering 16 million kids in this country live in homes where food isn't a sure thing. They don't know where their next meal will come from -- or if there will be a meal at all.

… A new music video by a Pennsylvania artist named Gallo, is dedicated to survivors of recent disasters like the tornado in Oklahoma, Superstorm Sandy, and the wildfires in California and Colorado. The video was released by Green for All, an organization aiming to build a green economy while lifting citizens out of poverty.

It has been heartbreaking to watch the news lately. Across Oklahoma, families are still struggling to pull their lives back together after tornadoes ripped through their towns. Dozens of others are coping with the greatest loss of all — their loved ones. Meanwhile, some folks on the Atlantic coast are continuing to recover from Superstorm Sandy. Others in California and Colorado are facing the aftermath of out-of-control wildfires. No one should have to face that kind of devastation. We’ve just seen too many disasters.

The Blue Economy is particularly ascendant in older industrial cities along the Great Lakes, where miles of formerly industrialized waterfront are being returned to recreational access and large investments in combating combined sewer overflow (CSO), which results when storm water overwhelms antiquated sewer systems, have begun to improve water quality. In many cities, CSO-related investment was initially prompted by EPA enforcement actions related to the Clean Water Act. From Milwaukee to Buffalo, Blue Economy movement leaders are making the case for ensuring that the greatest freshwater resource in the world is restored as a public good for generations to come.

For the past couple of months, we’ve seen our fair share of natural disasters from Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey to the devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma. Climate change is real and more evident than it’s ever been before. During his last State of the Union address, President Obama promised to act and this week he unveiled his action plan.

...The government is also in the midst of replacing the nation’s air traffic control system, shifting to a system based on satellite technology instead of the current radar technology. These are just some of the problems waiting for Foxx. But most are optimistic about his confirmation, including anti-poverty/environmental organization Green For All, which was founded by another for Obama appointment (albeit a controversial one), Van Jones who was Special Advisor for Green Jobs.

Today, President Obama unveiled a nuts-and-bolts plan to respond to climate change. The plan is very good news. In the months since the president's State of the Union promise to act on climate, we've seen more and more Americans devastated by tornadoes, wildfires, and disasters. If the need for decisive action wasn't crystal clear then, it is now.

Q: Dear Umbra, My son is in college and cannot decide which degree to get. He is interested in environmental issues and currently is enrolled with the degree of Civil Engineering. He just isn’t sure if that’s the “job” he wants. He expressed an interest in Construction Management so he can get into green building. Are there any degrees that are better than others that will lead to employment opportunities and are environmentally based?

A struggling rapper from Gilbert recently won a national song competition for keeping it positive. The underlying theme of the song called "Ima Push" is one of concern for the environment, global warming and green-friendly thinking. Call it environmentally friendly rap.

....Unless the parties come to a new agreement in stalled negotiations, the ruling means that Patriot’s health-care commitments as early as next month could be turned over to the Voluntary Employees Benefits Association, a fund that would be administered by the union. The Mine Workers say Patriot will only guarantee to pay $15 million, plus 20 cents per ton of coal mined, which the UMWA calculates will cover $5 million a year in retiree benefits. Retiree health care for Patriot’s beneficiaries costs almost $7 million a month, the union adds.

Early on Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins noticed how environmental issues affected poor regions and communities of color. In fact, she has made a career out of fighting for undeserved communities and workers. This includes improving environmental conditions. A sustainability advocate, today Ellis-Lamkins is the CEO of the anti-poverty organization Green For All.

Let's face it. The economy we have isn't working for far too many of us. The progress on unemployment has yet to make it to African-Americans, Hispanics, and youth, who still experience unemployment rates as high as twice the national average. This is especially troubling considering the rising majority we represent within the American population.

Water is essential as both a source of energy production as well as a through treatment and distribution. According to a 2011 Green for All report, water shortages in the next five years are predicted in at least 36 U.S. states. And each year 250,000 water mains break in this country due to crumbling water infrastructure, which costs an estimated $2.6 billion dollars annually and wastes almost two trillion gallons of water.

If they’re not disposed of properly, old cell phones, TVs and computers can poison our soil, air and water. After bouncing back from a troubled youth, Clando Brownlee is on a mission to give back to his community — by making recycling electronics easier than ever.

My in-laws were raised in the South where they had access to fresh produce that they grew alongside their parents. They knew what good, wholesome food was and they established healthy eating habits for their kids -- my husband and his brother -- even in Brooklyn, N.Y., where they resided for 46 years.

People are accustomed to environmentalists standing up for what's threatened -- the polar bear, forests encroached upon by development, our waterways. Rightfully so, we see the protection of our nation's land, air, and wildlife as intrinsically linked to our own survival.

At a time when more and more Americans are struggling to get by, affordable housing has never been more important. It's what keeps more than one million American families sheltered in the face of unemployment and diminishing paychecks. But right now, rising utility bills are quietly creating a crisis that jeopardizes the future of housing for our most vulnerable citizens.

Peabody held its annual shareholders meeting in Gillette, Wyoming on Monday, hoping to avoid more of the massive protests the coal company has faced at its headquarters in St. Louis. Indeed, while Peabody executives tried to put a positive spin on the company’s outlook for shareholders in Wyoming, thousands of union mine workers converged in downtown St. Louis to protest against Peabody and its efforts to cheat coal miners out of the pensions they were promised. The protest took place outside a bankruptcy hearing for ‘Patriot’ Coal, the company left with those obligations to retired miners and their families after Peabody and Arch spun off many of their mines.

Whether or not we can "run out of oil," we have to be asking bigger questions about the costs of our energy systems. In his piece, "What if we never run out of oil?" Charles Mann examines the possibility that new technologies and new sources of petroleum, like methane hydrate, could mean that we never run out of oil. The conclusion? As long as there is some kind of oil, somewhere, we will never make the transition to clean energy--and as a result, we won't be able to do anything about climate change.

The heart of Appalachia's coal country might not be the first place you'd expect to see cutting edge public health initiatives -- it's one of the least healthy regions in America. But a group of residents is determined to change that. In Williamson, West Virginia, neighbors are coming together to promote healthy living through an exciting new community fitness program: the Lunch Walk Challenge.

Green For All and the League of Young Voters Education Fund had a special #EarthDayLive livestream to show how food justice, energy efficiency, clean air, and water issues affect communities of color and how young leaders are developing solutions to address these issues. The broadcast brought to life the need to pursue green initiatives and how many inner cities communities must act now.

There’s a movement going on, one that will literally change the world for the better. And Green For All, a nationwide organization whose mission is to improve the lives of all Americans through building a clean energy economy, is a leader in this effort.

Earth Day 2013 should have been more than just a “celebration” of the planet or even a further raising of awareness of the consequences of climate change. Earth Day 2013 should have served as the beginning of a panic attack among global communities that the future of the planet is not just extremely fragile but imminently life-altering for all inhabitants.

If there were any lingering doubts about just how destructive and dangerous the proposed Keystone XL pipeline would be, the oil spills we’ve seen in Arkansas, Texas, and Canada in recent weeks should lay them to rest.

Written by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All;Cecil Roberts, President of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA);Van Jones, President of Rebuild the Dream and a CNN contributorCross-posted on Daily Kos. Read original post here.

You don’t often read headlines about environmentalists joining forces with coal miners. Environmentalists want to shut down coal plants that pollute our air and water, while miners understandably fight to keep and defend the jobs that the coal industry provides. Between these two forces, there sometimes appears to be little common ground.

Without proper maintenance, any type of infrastructure can lose functionality and ultimately fail. As more communities move towards adopting green infrastructure as a cost-effective approach to manage polluted runoff, it is critical that local governments address barriers to operations and maintenance. Despite the benefits of green infrastructure, operations and maintenance has been repeatedly raised as a technical barrier to adoption of green infrastructure and remains a concern for many local governments in the Chesapeake Bay region and across the country.

Budget. Congress. Hope. Now, those are three words that you don't often see together. With all of the political drama around our nation's economy, it's easy to forget that the federal budget process offers a tremendous opportunity, not just a tremendous headache. Our leaders in Congress have a chance right now to help ease our nation's most pressing struggles -- from the declining middle class to the rising threat of climate change. And some of them are working to do just that.

Some 110,000 new jobs could result from the more than 300 clean energy and clean transportation projects announced in the US in 2012, according to a new report from Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), “a national community of individual business leaders who advocate for good environmental policy while building economic prosperity.”

Throughout history, nearly all of the progress we’ve made toward a more just and peaceful world has started with seeds of discomfort with the status quo, and the growing sense that a better way is possible. That feeling is what gave birth to bold, audacious visions that have fueled our greatest gains over the past century—from child labor laws to the Civil Rights Movement.

We need to boost investment in clean energy. Wind, solar and energy-efficiency upgrades enable us to power our homes and businesses without contributing to climate change or poisoning our air and water. And these industries create good, healthy American jobs that can't be shipped overseas. A single 250-megawatt wind farm puts 1,000 people to work.

hroughout history, music has played a key role in helping inspire and breathe fire into efforts to combat injustice and create a better world. And it was never more important, or more memorable, than during the Civil Rights Movement.

...Conventional wisdom would place climate change and clean energy as issues outside the mainstream, the realm of tree huggers and the liberal white middle classes, stereotypical labels in and of themselves. But — even allowing for well-orchestrated spin — concerns and support for action on climate change have spread to a much more broad-based and diverse constituency.

Superstorms. Devastating drought. Out-of-control wildfires. Record-breaking temperatures. There’s no doubt about it: climate change has become impossible to ignore. And while it’s encouraging to see more and more Americans join the call for bold action on climate, there’s one issue that we still hear far too little about: the impact of global warming on low-income communities and people of color.

Posted by Joe Garofoli, San Francisco ChronicleRead the original post here.

Shortly before 1 p.m. West Coast time Wednesday, 48 environmental activists— including a ton of Bay Area residents including San Franciscans like Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune and Adam Werbach, St. Mary’s College professor Brenda Hillman and her husband UC-Berkeley professor and former poet laureate Bob Haas — were arrested after chaining themselves to a fence outside the White House to protest the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The recent public declarations of support for the DREAM Act and increased talk about immigration reform among Republican politicians has solidified Obama’s promise that he and Congress will address the issue sooner than later.

Written by: Allison Winter, E&E ReporterOriginally posted on Greenwire, an E&E Publishing Service

An environmental group focused on improving life in minority communities is asking President Obama to use his State of the Union speech tonight to point to climate change's outsized effects on the poor and minorities.

Written by: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For AllCrossposted on The Huffington Post. Read the original post here.

Portland resident Sary Dobhran never thought she would end up on welfare. But when she was four months pregnant, her son's father passed away, leaving her on her own to support a small child in the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Written by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For AllCrossposted on The Huffington Post. Read the original post here.

As we launch into 2013, we face some daunting challenges. We've had a frightening glimpse at the havoc global warming threatens to bring -- from floods and drought to wildfires and super storms. And our most vulnerable folks continue to be hit hardest and hit first. Meanwhile, big polluters are fighting more viciously than ever to block our march forward into a clean energy future.

Written by: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For AllCrossposted on The Huffington Post. Read the original post here.

As we launch into this new year, one of the best pieces of news I've heard was the decision by Congress last week to extend important tax credits to one of America's most promising industries: Wind power.

At Green For All, our work is all about helping the green economy grow. But we also want it to grow right. Our vision is for a world with cleaner air and water, but also greater equity and shared prosperity. We want to make sure that emerging green industries and programs don’t just create jobs—we want them to create good jobs and pathways out of poverty.

It's not an easy time in America. The problems we face are daunting and disturbing--from gun violence to poverty, joblessness, and climate change. In times like this, we want to be able to lean on our leaders. We want to trust that we can look to them for solutions, and guidance. We count on them to set aside politics and work diligently to protect us, the way President Obama and Governor Christie did in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Written by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For AllCross-posted on Huffington Post. Read original post here.

On December 14, the White House is expected to release updated safeguards for soot and other fine particulate matter, requiring coal plants to cut back the amount of soot pollution they pump into our air. The regulations are modest, but would go a long way in making our communities healthier and safe.

Of all the lessons from Hurricane Sandy, there is one that lingers in my mind. In the face of the disaster, neighborhoods with strong local networks were able to help each other, respond better, and bounce back more quickly. In some cases, people waited in vain for help from federal agencies and national relief groups -- but found food, shelter, and aid from local networks, like the "Occupy Sandy" effort, led by more than 2,000 local volunteers. The communities that fared best were the ones that had built-in resilience long before the storm struck.

Once considered one of the most conservative cities in the country, and known largely for its industrial manufacturing history, Indianapolis may seem like an unlikely leader in the movement to create more vibrant, healthy, equitable communities.

As Hurricane Sandy struck the Atlantic Coast, destroying homes and wreaking havoc, one city -- Stamford, Conn. -- sat snug and safe behind a 17-foot high barrier that kept massive waves out. The sea gate, built in 1969, prevented an estimated $25 million in damage and loss for the city's 125,000 residents.

At his official post-election press conference, President Obama told reporters that he's serious about fighting climate change while creating jobs. "We can shape an agenda that says we can create jobs, advance growth and make a serious dent in climate change and be an international leader," he said, "I think that's something that the American people would support."

Lately it seems like no one wants to talk about global warming. The issue has received so little attention from our political candidates during this election cycle that you'd think the problem had evaporated. That is until this week when Hurricane Sandy hit, flattening coastal neighborhoods, leaving millions of Americans without power and forcing dozens of others to face the worst loss of all as their loved ones were swept away.

Crossposted from the Cincinnati City Beat. Read the original blog post here.

Ohioans might not give it much thought outside of paying the water bill, but better water infrastructure can make cities more efficient, healthier and cleaner. That’s why Green For All, a group that promotes clean energy initiatives, is now focusing on cleaner, greener water infrastructure.

We've heard a lot in the past week about equal pay for women. It's an issue that's real, and it's important -- not just to the women whose paychecks are 23 percent smaller than their male counterparts -- but to the households they support. When you shortchange women, you're shortchanging two-thirds of American families who rely on women as providers and breadwinners.

Green jobs are one of America's best-kept secrets, but they shouldn't be. When you consider the fact that at least 3.1 million Americans already work in green jobs, and that green industries and businesses can help solve some of our country's biggest problems -- from pollution to poverty and economic stagnation -- you'd think we'd be hearing our leaders talk about green jobs all the time.

If you lived in the Cleveland area during the 1950s and '60s, you might have witnessed the disturbing sight of a local river, the Cuyahoga, engulfed in flames. For years, the river was so contaminated by oil and other industrial pollutants that it was nearly devoid of fish, and its water caught fire regularly.

The city of Pittsburgh, at one time, was so choked by coal pollution that Boston writer James Parton dubbed it "hell with the lid off." A series of vintage photos recently published in TheAtlantic show city streets so dim with smog that you'd think a massive fire was smoldering nearby.

It's hard to imagine why anyone in this country would fail to get behind a sector like clean energy, which is putting Americans to work while keeping our air and water healthy. It's even harder to understand why they would actively try to destroy it. Yet that's exactly what's going on.

America is in a tough place right now. In a recent poll, nearly half of voters said they think our country's best days are behind us. It's understandable, then, that many of us may be looking back and longing for the past, when life seemed a little bit easier.

When the fire broke out at the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California last week, this is what families living nearby--including some of our own staff at Green For All--experienced: Their windows rattled and their houses shook. Some of them watched fiery explosions and plumes of dark smoke pour from the refinery. Others just heard the frightening wail of the city's emergency sirens. They gathered up their children and pets, covered their mouths and noses, and scrambled to seal their doors and windows.

It seems like all we hear these days is bad news -- rising poverty, increasing violence, unprecedented weather disasters -- the list goes on. But there's another story out there, one we don't hear enough about. It's the story of a transformation that's quietly unfolding as the green economy takes root in neighborhoods and cities across America. Cities like Portland, Oregon.

With the Senate having just voted to roll back the Bush-era tax cuts for households above $250,000 and the House expected to vote in favor of protecting tax cuts for the richest Americans, the debate over what to do next is taking center stage in Washington. The answer: we cannot afford to extend the tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires. There are better places to put that money and more important national needs than making the rich richer and keeping tax breaks for the wealthiest two percent.

When we hear about Arizona these days, what we hear is increasingly disturbing. We hear about extreme anti-immigrant laws. Racial profiling. Mass detention centers where people are subjected to bizarre and humiliating punishments. Violent militias. Attacks on migrant families. Race-based book bans.

As world leaders met in Rio last week for the UN conference on sustainable development, they drew widespread criticism. Leaders from developing countries argued that the wealthiest countries aren't doing enough to fund environmental protection. And activists argued that agreements forged in Rio are too weak and watered down to create real change.

As world leaders meet in Rio this week, they’ve promised to talk about how they can work together to eradicate poverty. Nothing could be more urgent. We need our leaders to create long-term solutions that will wipe out hunger and poverty for good — here in the U.S., and across the globe.

As the days get longer, more and more Americans are cranking up their air conditioners and turning on their fans. Meanwhile, their energy costs continue to climb -- and they're feeling it. In a poll last week nearly 8 out of 10 people said saving on energy costs was deeply important to them -- more important than issues like the federal deficit.This isn't news to the millions of low-income families who worry every single day about their utility bills -- the families who are struggling to stay cool as temperatures climb. But it is a good reminder to our nation's leaders that energy policies hit folks at home, and in their wallets. By making it a priority to help Americans achieve energy savings, our leaders can provide real help to struggling families.

As the days get longer, more and more Americans are cranking up their air conditioners and turning on their fans. Meanwhile, their energy costs continue to climb -- and they're feeling it. In a poll last week nearly 8 out of 10 people said saving on energy costs was deeply important to them -- more important than issues like the federal deficit.

The sun is shining here in Oakland, and you can feel summer in the air. In my neighborhood, and all across America, kids are anxiously awaiting the final ring of the school bell. But not every child is looking forward to summer. Some will be trapped indoors during the next few months, unable to play outside because of their asthma attacks. Like many kids, I had asthma growing up so I know how hard it is to be stuck inside while everyone else plays.
Too many kids in our country suffer from asthma. It's the number one chronic childhood disease in our country, and the leading cause of missed school days. It's also one of the top reasons children end up in the hospital. And in many cases this illness and others like it could be avoided by having cleaner air and water that's free of pollutants and toxins.
But this disease doesn't reach everyone; in fact people of color are hit the hardest. More than half of all African Americans live in neighborhoods where the air quality doesn't meet federal standards. And one in six African American kids has asthma, compared with one in ten nationwide. That's a rate that should be unacceptable in any nation as wealthy and technologically advanced as ours.
The saddest part is that these kids don't have to suffer. We could prevent 130,000 asthma attacks just by cleaning up one of the dirtiest sources of pollution: coal-fired power plants. But it's not just asthma we have to worry about. Coal plants fill our air with chemicals that lead to heart disease, cancer, birth defects, and early death.
The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to keep us safe from these chemicals; late last year, they issued long-overdue Mercury and Air Toxics Standards to clean up the worst pollution from coal plants, including toxic mercury.
Coal plants pump about 48 tons of mercury into our air each year. To put things in perspective, just one-seventieth of a teaspoon of mercury is enough to contaminate an entire lake, making the fish in it too dangerous to eat. When mercury gets into the water, it ends up in our food chain, and then our bodies. Pregnant women pass it along to their babies, where it interferes with their development and causes brain damage.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/mBb3ZSi-cIs

Many families could be spared this pain if we simply told polluters that they would no longer be allowed to dump mercury into our air and water. And the EPA estimates that cleaning up coal plants will preventroughly 11,000 premature deaths each year.
Just one example is seven-year-old Heavynlynn from Kansas City, who is growing up near a coal plant that is filling the air in her community with poisonous toxins. There are thousands of other stories just like hers -- that illustrate the true cost if we delay the implementation of these critical standards.
But sadly, corporate polluters and their allies in Congress -- like Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) -- are trying to roll back the EPA's common sense safeguards. Why? So coal executives can make more money.
That's right: The coal industry thinks it's okay to saddle school children with debilitating asthma and give babies birth defects -- as long as they can make a few more dollars in the process.
How long are we going to let them poison our kids?
It's not just our health that would benefit from these EPA standards. Cleaning up pollution from coal plants alone would create an estimated 46,000 new jobs. That's 46,000 of our neighbors and friends who would be able to wake up each day and be proud to go to work. Forty-six thousand people bringing home paychecks to support their families.
If that's not enough, consider this: The standards will save us money. For every dollar spent to cut pollution, we would get back $5 to $13 in health benefits.
Right now, I'm thinking about all those little kids -- especially in poor neighborhoods -- who want to play outside this summer, but can't, because the air is too dirty or their lungs are too weak. And I just can't make sense of a country that would trade children's lives for corporate profits.
That's why Green For All has joined with NAACP to send a clear message to our leaders in Congress: They can stand on the side of polluter profits, or they can stand on the side of American kids, by protecting the EPA's mercury safeguards.
You can stand on the side of kids, too.
http://costofdelay.tumblr.com/Follow Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins on Twitter: www.twitter.com/phaedrael

Minority populations across the south and southwest are especially vulnerable to climate change, according to a new report put out by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Local and state governments, it also found, are failing to integrate such concerns into their climate disaster plans.
“Only three states (Arizona, Arkansas, New Mexico) have climate change plans,” noted the study’s co-author, Nadia Siddiqui, during a teleconference Monday discussing the findings. She added researchers found “no evidence of planning for racially and ethnically diverse populations in any state” included in the study.

(Special to The Root) -- The face of America is changing dramatically. New census data shows that for the first time in our history, babies being delivered in hospitals all over the country are predominantly African American, Latino, Asian and other minorities. It's not just our babies who are growing more diverse. It's our neighborhoods, our communities and our workforce. In some of America's largest cities, a new majority has already emerged -- one made up of people of color.
The faces of voters are changing, too. In the 2010 election, the percentage of Hispanic voters reached a record high. Meanwhile, census projections show that in just 30 years, nonwhites will represent a larger block of America's total population than whites.
It's true that we have work to do before our voting power matches our numbers -- far too many people of color are still systematically locked out of our democracy by arbitrary voter ID laws, criminal disenfranchisement and racial gerrymandering. But politicians who fail to notice that America is changing -- fast -- may soon find themselves in trouble.
Ultimately the leaders who thrive in the 21st century, and the ones who continue to hold office, will be those who respond to the needs of our increasingly diverse citizens. Elected officials will have to pay more attention to the issues pressing African-American, Latino, Asian and Native American families. And the nation's energy sector is among the most important issues.
Why? Because many people of color bear the brunt of pollution from outdated power plants and toxic industries. A staggering one in six African-American children suffers from asthma, compared with one in 10 nationwide. And of the 8 million people living within three miles of polluting coal-fired power plants, a disproportionate number are people of color. Energy is not just how we power our lives; it's a public health issue.
For more on clean energy and what we can do to improve our environment, visit theroot.com.

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green for All, says the clean energy community must repudiate untruths in the face of opposing campaigns spreading lies. Ellis-Lamkins encourages people to ask questions about why the opposition would have a problem with clean energy, especially since clean energy was a core principle of John McCain’s campaign for the presidency.

The nonprofit Green For All has premiered a new music video that calls on people from all over the world to join together to build a brighter future for their families and communities.
Harkening back to the activist roots of Mother’s Day, the video focuses on women who have inspired change, and calls on a new generation of leaders to continue their work. The song, titled “7 billion”, won Green For All’s 2012 Dream Reborn Music Contest and was written and performed by two young Atlanta-based artists, Invest and Silent C.
Read the full story...

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Crossposted from www.greenbiz.com.
Click here to read the original article.
At first glance, it may not be looking too good for those of us who are trying to save the planet and put people to work. Pollution from cars, coal plants, and toxic industry is poisoning us more than ever before. Already, global warming is taking a toll on the world’s most vulnerable people -- the World Health Organization has linked tens of thousands of deaths to climate change. Across the globe, economies are faltering, and here in America, the unemployment rate is still painfully high. Meanwhile, groups like the Heritage Foundation are attacking the green economy with new vigor.
And yet, I’m feeling more hopeful than ever.
Why? Because I’ve been meeting with some of the smartest, most innovative business leaders in America. If anyone can find creative ways to meet the challenges we face, it’s these folks. Not every
conversation that happens in our nation’s boardrooms is about how to squeeze out profits at the expense of hardworking families. In fact, I’m hearing more and more conversations about how businesses can create the kind of world they want to operate in. A world with clean air and water. A world where kids aren’t going hungry. A world where more Americans have access to good jobs they can be proud of.
Two weeks ago, I joined business leaders from companies like Calvert and Sungevity at the Social Venture Network’s meeting outside of Portland, Oregon. Over the course of the meeting, hundreds of industry leaders grappled with the question of how businesses can most effectively serve as forces for social change.
This is exactly the kind of networking and problem solving we need if we want to put America on the road to prosperity and sustainability.
We also need to be bold. And one of the boldest things we can do right now is to believe that change is possible in our lifetime.
Opponents of the green economy are attacking us because they’re scared. I think that’s a good sign. It means we’re on the verge of winning. Our opponents say the solar industry is a flop. Meanwhile, the American solar industry has seen triple digit growth over the past two years—and this in the midst of the worst economy since the Great Depression. Our opponents say green jobs aren’t real. Meanwhile, the green economy is already employing more people than the fossil fuel industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month that 3.1 million Americans are working in green jobs today. And even as purse strings tighten around the world, investments in clean energy are on the rise. In 2011, global clean energy investment reached a record $263 billion.
When I look at the numbers and the facts, it’s not hard for me to believe that change is possible in our lifetime. It’s already happening.
But believing isn’t enough. Believing won’t put a meal on the table or a paycheck into a single mom’s checking account. It won’t take the mercury out of our water or the pollution out of our kids’ lungs. We need to solve real environmental problems and create real jobs. That’s where business comes in. Businesses—both small and large—can start changing things right now. They don’t have to wait for federal or local government to take action.
They can do it by reducing the environmental footprint of their own companies. They can do it by hiring the folks who have been shut out of the old economy—like youth, veterans, women, and people
of color.
They can do it simply by seizing the opportunities that crop up from efforts to make America’s air and water healthy and safe. As we repair our crumbling transportation and water systems to make them cleaner and more sustainable, there will be a chance for local contractors and companies to join the effort—and much of this work can’t be outsourced to other countries.
And they can do it by innovating solutions—like the new ways companies like Sungevity, Solar City, and Solar Mosaic are pioneering to make solar power more affordable and give more Americans access to clean energy.
If we hope to turn things around—to put Americans to work again, to clean up our air and water, and fight climate change—we’ll need support from both big industries and small businesses. Because this fight will be won or lost in board rooms as much as it will on the streets.

This Mother's Day is a very special one for me. I'm expecting my first child in just a few weeks. It's a time filled with anticipation and hope. But most of all, this new addition to my family and my life has given even more urgency to our effort to create an inclusive green economy.
It's pretty hard not to want to leave behind a healthier, greener, more prosperous world when it's your own child who will be living in it. Maybe that's why women have contributed so much over the decades to movements for justice and peace.

OAKLAND, Calif., May 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Green For All premiered a new music video that calls on people from all over the world to join together to build a brighter future for their families and communities. Harkening back to the activist roots of Mother's Day, the video focuses on women who have inspired change, and calls on a new generation of leaders to continue their work. The song, titled "7 billion," won Green For All's 2012 Dream Reborn Music Contest and was written and performed by two youngAtlanta-based artists, Invest and Silent C. To watch the music video visit: /gfa/wp/song-for-mom-7-billion-strong
"'7 billion' taps into the power of people all over the world to come together to overcome poverty and oppression. It also highlights the role women play in creating more peaceful and just nations and communities—and in transforming individual lives," said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All. "It is this inspiring message that will empower young people to lead, dedicate themselves to making changes in their community, and create greater opportunity."

OAKLAND, Calif., May 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Green For All premiered a new music video that calls on people from all over the world to join together to build a brighter future for their families and communities. Harkening back to the activist roots of Mother's Day, the video focuses on women who have inspired change, and calls on a new generation of leaders to continue their work. The song, titled "7 billion," won Green For All's 2012 Dream Reborn Music Contest and was written and performed by two young Atlanta-based artists, Invest and Silent C. To watch the music video visit:/gfa/wp/song-for-mom-7-billion-strong
"'7 billion' taps into the power of people all over the world to come together to overcome poverty and oppression. It also highlights the role women play in creating more peaceful and just nations and communities—and in transforming individual lives," said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All. "It is this inspiring message that will empower young people to lead, dedicate themselves to making changes in their community, and create greater opportunity."

OAKLAND, Calif., May 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Green For All premiered a new music video that calls on people from all over the world to join together to build a brighter future for their families and communities. Harkening back to the activist roots of Mother's Day, the video focuses on women who have inspired change, and calls on a new generation of leaders to continue their work. The song, titled "7 billion," won Green For All's 2012 Dream Reborn Music Contest and was written and performed by two young Atlanta-based artists, Invest and Silent C. To watch the music video visit: /gfa/wp/song-for-mom-7-billion-strong
"'7 billion' taps into the power of people all over the world to come together to overcome poverty and oppression. It also highlights the role women play in creating more peaceful and just nations and communities—and in transforming individual lives," said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All. "It is this inspiring message that will empower young people to lead, dedicate themselves to making changes in their community, and create greater opportunity."

OAKLAND, Calif., May 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Green For All premiered a new music video that calls on people from all over the world to join together to build a brighter future for their families and communities. Harkening back to the activist roots of Mother's Day, the video focuses on women who have inspired change, and calls on a new generation of leaders to continue their work. The song, titled "7 billion," won Green For All's 2012 Dream Reborn Music Contest and was written and performed by two young Atlanta-based artists, Invest and Silent C. To watch the music video visit: http://gfa.fchq.ca/songs-for-mom-7-billion-strong
"'7 billion' taps into the power of people all over the world to come together to overcome poverty and oppression. It also highlights the role women play in creating more peaceful and just nations and communities—and in transforming individual lives," said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All. "It is this inspiring message that will empower young people to lead, dedicate themselves to making changes in their community, and create greater opportunity."
Read the full story...

Crossposted from The Huffington Post. Click here to read the original article.
This Mother's Day is a very special one for me. I'm expecting my first child in just a few weeks. It's a time filled with anticipation and hope. But most of all, this new addition to my family and my life has given even more urgency to our effort to create an inclusive green economy.
It's pretty hard not to want to leave behind a healthier, greener, more prosperous world when it's your own child who will be living in it. Maybe that's why women have contributed so much over the decades to movements for justice and peace.
In fact, we can trace Mother's Day in America back to an early activist. In 1870, fed up with the carnage of the Civil War, feminist and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe issued a "Mother's Day Proclamation" calling for women to band together to promote disarmament and peace. Howe believed women could be an unstoppable force for social change. She was right.
From suffrage to civil rights to farmworkers justice, women have played a key role in the progress we've made over the past century. So when we celebrate Mother's Day, we're also celebrating the power of women to change the world.
That's why I could not be more proud and excited to announce the release of our new music video collaboration for the song "7 Billion" by Silent C and Invest.
Their song -- which won Green For All's 2012 Dream Reborn Music Contest -- taps into the power of the planet's growing population to overcome poverty and oppression and create a better world. It also highlights the role women play in creating more peaceful and just nations and communities -- and in transforming individual lives.
Women like my own mother, who worked hard to support our family. I grew up in the shadow of oil refineries and polluting industry, where, too often, families like mine were forced to choose between their jobs and their health. But my mom showed me what people can do when they come together for a purpose. When she joined a union and began to make a fair wage, my prospects in life suddenly improved -- and so did those of all the other kids whose parents were in the union. I witnessed the way community organizing can make a difference in real people's lives -- and that may have been one of the most valuable lessons my mother taught me.
So this Mother's Day, in honor of my mom Gail Lamkins, I'm going to share this inspiring video. And I'm going to fight harder than ever for a greener and more inclusive America.
You can join me. Take a moment to share the "7 Billion" video and tell us about a woman who's inspired you. And help our movement grow.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Crossposted from The Huffington Post. Click here to read the original article.
This Mother's Day is a very special one for me. I'm expecting my first child in just a few weeks. It's a time filled with anticipation and hope. But most of all, this new addition to my family and my life has given even more urgency to our effort to create an inclusive green economy.
It's pretty hard not to want to leave behind a healthier, greener, more prosperous world when it's your own child who will be living in it. Maybe that's why women have contributed so much over the decades to movements for justice and peace.
In fact, we can trace Mother's Day in America back to an early activist. In 1870, fed up with the carnage of the Civil War, feminist and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe issued a "Mother's Day Proclamation" calling for women to band together to promote disarmament and peace. Howe believed women could be an unstoppable force for social change. She was right.
From suffrage to civil rights to farmworkers justice, women have played a key role in the progress we've made over the past century. So when we celebrate Mother's Day, we're also celebrating the power of women to change the world.
That's why I could not be more proud and excited to announce the release of our new music video collaboration for the song "7 Billion" by Silent C and Invest.
Their song -- which won Green For All's 2012 Dream Reborn Music Contest -- taps into the power of the planet's growing population to overcome poverty and oppression and create a better world. It also highlights the role women play in creating more peaceful and just nations and communities -- and in transforming individual lives.
Women like my own mother, who worked hard to support our family. I grew up in the shadow of oil refineries and polluting industry, where, too often, families like mine were forced to choose between their jobs and their health. But my mom showed me what people can do when they come together for a purpose. When she joined a union and began to make a fair wage, my prospects in life suddenly improved -- and so did those of all the other kids whose parents were in the union. I witnessed the way community organizing can make a difference in real people's lives -- and that may have been one of the most valuable lessons my mother taught me.
So this Mother's Day, in honor of my mom Gail Lamkins, I'm going to share this inspiring video. And I'm going to fight harder than ever for a greener and more inclusive America.
You can join me. Take a moment to share the "7 Billion" video and tell us about a woman who's inspired you. And help our movement grow.

As an advocate for a clean-energy economy, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins stands at the intersection of economics and environment, working to make the case that “environmental protection is something good for the economy.”
Ellis-Lamkins, chief executive officer of the Oakland-based Green For All, says that too often the public is presented a false choice – environmental protection or jobs. Steps to improve the environment – updating infrastructure, for example – can create jobs.

Wayne Silby, who helped found SVN 25 years ago, says a new reality needs to start with articulating a bold vision.
Wayne says the public good has been robbed not only by Wall Street but ideologues who control the conversation. He remembers recently sitting down to dinner with Bill Gates Sr., father of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who said his son wouldn’t be the richest man in the world if he was born in Ethiopia.
Part of a forward-looking vision could be reinterpreting the role of people who have wealth beyond their means as stewards and trustees of a public good.
“We need to be more bold in putting out concepts that help create the new stories, the new tales and the new mythologies,” said Wayne.
Green For All CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins agreed with Wayne, adding she’s ready to be bold. She says boldness comes from a conviction that change is possible in our lifetime.
To give an example of how fast things can change, Phaedra points to the stark contrast in political debates now and during the last United States presidential election.

For Earth Day, U.S. non-profit-organization Green For All arranged for students in Atlanta to learn about sustainability and environmentalism. Children were taught a range of environmental activities from planting trees to energy-efficiency.

Atlanta high school and college students learned the importance of environmental sustainability and their crucial role in educating communities, thanks to an Earth Day service event hosted by Green For All and Atlanta-based Let’s Retrofit A Million (LRAM).

I may be going out on a limb here, but I firmly believe that this Earth Day there is much to celebrate. True, we’re beginning to see climate change take its toll as people around the world struggle in the face of drought and severe weather. And it’s true that we’ve seen a dispiriting lack of political action to fight climate change—both in Washington and on the world stage.

But we’re also seeing transformation and hope rising up from communities around the country and the globe. This Earth Day, I want to pause and celebrate the progress we’ve made towards our vision of a prosperous green economy.

Let’s start with the Bureau of Labor Statistics report issued just a few weeks ago. This report shows that green jobs are real, are growing, and are here to stay. The report shows that an enormous number of jobs are already linked to the green economy – 3.1 million in 2010. This new data illustrates just how productive and positive green jobs can be for our economy and for the average American worker.

First, consider that green jobs are incredibly diverse: from construction and manufacturing to recycling and mass transit. Green jobs also support two industries that have been hit hardest by the economic slowdown: construction and manufacturing—both of which have reported off-the-chart unemployment rates, hurting families across the country. Recovery in these sectors is vital to pulling America out of recession. So it’s encouraging that green building accounted for 25 percent of all new construction ventures in 2010.

What’s more, in some of the hardest-hit regions in America, green jobs are increasingly becoming an important and permanent part of the economic fabric. In the Midwest, for example, green jobs represented 3.7% of total employment. We see this same trend in some of the most economically desperate areas across the country.

There’s little doubt that the green economy is already transforming Americans’ lives. Change is here, and it’s here to stay.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t do more to accelerate its pace. In fact, there has never been a more important moment to invest in the green economy—by giving it a shot in the arm now, we can ensure that America comes back stronger and healthier and more prosperous than ever. Yes, there have been some setbacks for the environment. But we have also never had a greater opportunity to transform our economy and our communities than we do right at this moment. This Earth Day, there’s a lot to celebrate. Here are some of the ways Green for All is marking the day:

In Nashville, we are working with the University of Phoenix and business leaders to help entrepreneurs learn what it takes to succeed in clean energy economy with our eighth Green Business Academy.

In Atlanta, we are working with Let’s Retrofit A Million to bring together students and families to make a local elementary school more energy efficient by changing light bulbs and educating the community on how they can save money by being more environmentally friendly. We’ll also be planting trees and talking about the inspiring work of Noble Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, whose legacy teaches us that we can all make a difference in our community if we work together.

There’s a lot more work to be done, and we need your help. Whether you want to start your own garden, make your campus more sustainable, or educate your neighbors and friends, our Earth Day Block Rockers toolkit has all the resources to take action. With your help we’ll have even more to celebrate next Earth Day. Sign up here to find out what more you can do to build the green economy.

In celebration of Earth Day, Green for All is teaming up with Woodson Elementary School and Let’s Retrofit A Million on a community service project to honor the legacy of environmental and human rights activist, Wangari Maathai. On Saturday April 21, local elementary and college students will learn about sustainability and environmental activism by participating in Earth Day service projects including planting trees, installing energy-efficient light bulbs in classrooms and delivering free compact florescent light bulbs to residents of the Grove Park Community.

According to the organizers, the title of The Green Room Mixtape reflects what every community needs to thrive – green room. It stands for city parks in place of concrete, local grocery chains providing real food for communities and space for all people to breathe, live and build a community. The “green room” is also a safe haven for artists and visionaries as they prepare to entertain and inspire. This Earth Day 2012 mixtape aims to do both.

As tax day rolls around, hardworking families are meeting their obligations to our nation by paying their taxes. This year, Americans will pay an estimated $2.62 trillion in federal taxes and $1.42 trillion in state-local taxes. But at the same time, the reality is many of the wealthiest Americans just aren't doing their part. Since the Bush tax cuts were signed into law, the nation's top earners continue to get wealthier while middle-class and low-income families are paying more than their fair share. It's time to put an end to the free passes for billionaires and millionaires and make our tax system more fair and equitable for all Americans. That doesn't just mean equality -- though that's vital -- it means making our country great again through valuable investments in our nation's future.

In honor of Earth Day, the League of Young Voters Education Fund and Green For All have partnered to release The Green Room Mixtape, making its world premiere as a stream in the The DJBooth. Hosted by DJ Willie Shakes, the project features music from some of today's hottest hip-hop and R&B acts, including Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, BJ the Chicago Kid, Dee-1 and Markese Bryant of Green For All. Those who download the free mixtape tomorrow, April 18 (via their website), will also receive an Earth Day toolkit with resources to help them keep their community green.

The socioeconomic characteristics of green jobs—well-paid, upwardly mobile, and available to diverse communities with varying levels of skills and education—have long been the core values of advocates of the green economy. Organizations such as Green for All, the Apollo Alliance, Wider Opportunities for Women, and the Center for American Progress have led the national discussion that job creation is not just a numbers game. Economic development and job creation should also reflect equality and accessibility in order to address longstanding economic disparity and to help build a strong middle class, particularly for working mothers who represent nearly two-thirds of breadwinners or co-breadwinners for all U.S. households.

As tax day rolls around, hardworking families are meeting their obligations to our nation by paying their taxes. This year, Americans will pay an estimated $2.62 trillion in federal taxes and $1.42 trillion in state-local taxes. But at the same time, the reality is many of the wealthiest Americans just aren’t doing their part. Since the Bush tax cuts were signed into law, the nation’s top earners continue to get wealthier while middle-class and low-income families are paying more than their fair share. It’s time to put an end to the free passes for billionaires and millionaires and make our tax system more fair and equitable for all Americans. That doesn’t just mean equality – though that’s vital – it means making our country great again through valuable investments in our nation’s future.

Authors: By Kelly Meyer
Originally posted on the Huffington Post
When we planted our first Teaching Garden, we were thinking about helping kids connect with the earth in a way that would get them excited about eating fresh foods. Soon after our first success, the American Heart Association adopted us, and we now thriving with more than 100 Teaching Gardens planted nationwide and growing.
Twelve of those Gardens benefit Los Angeles public schools with another ten Gardens scheduled later this year, thanks in large part to a deep-rooted commitment from The California Endowment as part of its Health Happens Here initiative. All of these Teaching Gardens have been planted in what are sometimes called food desert communities where healthy, affordable food is difficult to obtain.
Teaching Gardens are designed to introduce children to vegetables on their own turf as a way to influence eating habits. We’ve discovered that the Gardens can impact children in many other ways; provide a safe place for reflection; a new and easier way to make friends and be engaged in community service; hands-on experience that reinforce commitment and patience.
Our gardens are growing but more needs to be done to change the food system in these communities. Meet Ron Finley. He believes in food forests, not food deserts. A native of South Los Angeles, Ron has transformed a useless, scrubby parkway strip into a lush edible garden that is helping to feed his neighbors. He’s been dubbed a renegade gardener who is gaining the attention of Angelinos and city officials. Take a look at this short film to see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/5dhdAgLPMUQ?rel=0

After his garden was thriving, Ron received a citation from the City’s Department of Public Works and was told to chop it down. But thanks to the help from many others working on expanding urban agriculture in Los Angeles, he fought back and eventually received special dispensation from the city. Ron and his friends haven’t stopped there. They are pushing for a new ordinance to make it easier for urban gardeners to legally grow food on public parkways.
Bringing people closer to the creation of their food; giving access to whole, fresh foods at fair prices; working together to make our communities garden-friendly; are all ways we can positively impact our health and improve our environment. They are one and the same really.
With a little creativity, vision and willingness to get our hands dirty, we can remake spaces defined by asphalt and dead grass into productive places of beauty. We can grow good things and nurture the earth in a way that changes us in many unexpected ways.
TO LEARN MORE about Teaching Gardens:heart.org/teachinggardensTO LEARN MORE about the food movement in Los Angeles and how to get involved visit the Los Angeles Food Policy Council:
goodfoodla.orgTO JOIN IN the MOVEMENT sign the GOOD FOOD PLEDGE:http://www.goodfoodla.org/good_food_pledge.phpAbout Teaching Gardens founder Kelly Chapman Meyer - In response to America’s childhood obesity crisis, Kelly Meyer created the Teaching Gardens program in 2010. She has been a long-time environmental and health activist. Among her accomplishments, she has helped raise more than $40 million for pioneering cancer research, lobbied Congress to reform the Toxic Substance Control Act, built California’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum-Certified home and has held prominent positions with the Natural Resources Defense Council. A tireless fundraiser for environmental causes, she recently supported the implementation of the Marine Life Preserve Area on the coast of Southern California.

Kansas City, like many American towns, is burdened by pollution from coal-fired power plants, unemployment, and poverty. Faced with bitterly cold winters and scorching summers, the city’s residents struggle to keep up with steep energy bills. Our new video shows how Green For All’s local partners are helping forge a path to a cleaner, more prosperous future in Kansas City — putting people to work, cleaning up the city’s air and water, and cutting energy costs.

Climate Solutions has put together a great Solutions Stories series. The Center for American Progress is working on its own profile of green jobs in key states (with more to be released soon). And Green For All has rolled out a series of stories from cities around the country. There’s activity happening everywhere — it’s nearly impossible to capture all of it.
This latest Green For All video from Kansas City shows how grassroots much of the activity is, creating real jobs that create direct local benefits.

The U.S. Labor Department released a new report this week that shows at least 3.1 million Americans are employed in green jobs, which accounts for about 2.4 percent of the nation’s total employment.
In conjunction with the announcement, Green for All released a new video, Green Jobs for Kansas City (http://bit.ly/H4UuW2), which highlights jobs being created in the field of energy efficiency in the Green Impact Zone, a 150-square block area that has been targeted with federal funding for green job creation and energy efficient housing.

Posted by Brian Purchia
Today, Madame Noire featured Green For All Fellow Tanya Fields of The BLK ProjecK for enriching the lives of women in the South Bronx in New York. Tanya discussed her inspiration and motivation for the work she does as well as her vision for the future for herself and her community.

At 22 years old I found myself living on my own in the South Bronx with a three month old while going to school full time. I struggled, getting a crash course in the lesson that poverty is rampant among women, particularly women of color because they are women who many times are subjected to policies and services that are created to marginalize them. In a patriarchal society, single mothers are PENALIZED for that “decision” and in turn their children are at higher risk for poor nutrition and poor nourishment. As someone who did not grow up in a cycle of poverty, violence or poor education, I had outside resources. I had educational capital, social capital and cultural capital to continue to propel me forward. I began to think, what about the women who did not? What about their children? These were my sisters and if with all that I still continued to face what felt like impossible odds how were they going to fare? I created The BLK ProjeK for those women. For me, for myself. I am linked to their success because I am inextricably linked to them.

Today in a blog on the Huffington Post, Green For All CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins called for investment in green jobs training programs to build our economy.

Green jobs pay higher, are more available to those with only a high school degree -- and are growing faster than jobs in the rest of the economy. It's a smart sector in which to invest.

There are currently 85,000 Americans working in the wind industry and more than 100,00 are working in solar. Nearly 50 percent of solar companies recently surveyed said they are expecting to add jobs in 2012. But, they need American workers prepared for these jobs.

The University of Minnesota'sInstitute on the Environment puts out a quarterly magazine called Momentum. The Winter 2012 edition isa special issue, in which Momentum invited more than two dozen experts from around the world to offer ideas on crafting solutions to some of our planet’s biggest problems.

Green For All's CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins was honored to provide her thoughts.

What’s it going to take to spur this nation to act on the opportunities that a green economy presents?

First, I think it’s important to note that we already have a thriving green economy. More people actually work in the green economy than the fossil fuel sector. The question, though, is, how do you scale it enough that people go back to work? The first step is green incentives. We have to stop providing incentives to fuels that pollute and provide incentives to the industries we want to grow. The United States has to pick winners and losers, and we want to pick winners that put people back to work and sustain the planet.

The young man stood outside a street corner office, near a shelter for drug-addicted prostitutes, a boarded-up natural herbs store, a Bus 19 stop. He had left home early that summer morning, crossing Dorchester to pick up his 4-year-old son and take him on a 3-mile bus ride to preschool, then returned home alone to get ready for this.

He'd put on a pressed blue shirt and an oversized Red Sox cap, and before heading off, grabbed the backpack in which he'd stuffed the papers he would need.

WASHINGTON – Building on its commitment to ensuring strong protection from environmental and health hazards for all Americans, the Obama Administration today announced Federal agencies have agreed to develop environmental justice strategies to protect the health of people living in communities overburdened by pollution and provide the public with annual progress reports on their efforts. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder were joined by agency heads across the Administration in signing the "Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898" (EJ MOU).

Last year, Lara and Kenneth Lane's son Ja-Mickeal died of an asthma attack in his sleep. He was just five years old. His asthma was severe. The attack was sudden. And, the outcome devastated his family and community.

Ja-Mickeal's death was not an isolated case. In recent years, hundreds of children have died from asthma. Millions of others have been through the terrifying experience of a crippling attack -- the contracting lungs, the blocked airwaves, the gasping for breath.

While asthma impacts people young and old, from all races and backgrounds, the hard truth is that it's hitting the African-American community the hardest.

One in six black children currently suffer from asthma, the highest of any ethnic group, according to a recent report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. As the NAACP recently reported, 8 million people live within three miles of coal-powered plants; their average per capita income is roughly $19,000. And a disproportionate percentage of this population is comprised of people of color.

In other words, our community is more likely to be exposed to triggers. We are more likely to live in polluted communities. Our housing is more likely to have mold. We are exposed to pests at greater rates. Yet, despite all these conditions, when you ask some about the environmental crisis, it doesn't always resonate like the economic crisis. That's because for struggling Americans, the future is a luxury.

Why worry about the climate next decade when you don't know if you can feed your family next week? Why seek out healthy food when you only have time for fast food? Why care about solar panels on roofs if you have to work three jobs just to keep a roof over your head?

These views are valid. But, we should never lose sight of the link between poverty and pollution. And, in the bigger picture, we must always recognize that the green movement is an integral part of the larger fight for fairness. Every child should have the right to go to school without being subjected to toxic air. All communities should have access to quality housing that doesn't harm their health. People should be able to find quality jobs that don't pollute their community at the same time.

This is a personal issue for me. I grew up in a small town in the Bay Area, ringed with oil refineries and other heavy industry. Many kids in the neighborhood had asthma, including me. Yet, none of our parents could move us to a healthier environment for one reason -- they couldn't afford to.
Decades later, in the midst of this deep recession, many more parents face the same dilemma, especially in the black community where the unemployment rate is nearly twice the national average. But, it doesn't have to be this way.

Right now, lots of work needs to be done to make our nation a healthier, cleaner and greener place to live. At the same time, Americans need jobs. At Green For All, we put two and two together, match the opportunity with the demand, and help to develop a green economy that provides opportunities for the most vulnerable communities.

The possibilities are incredible. For instance, in March, the Environmental Protection Agency, for the first time, proposed standards to reduce the mercury and air toxics coming from coal-fired power plants. Ceres -- a national coalition of investors and public interest groups -- reported that this work would help create nearly 1.5 million jobs over the next five years, including plumbers, electricians, engineers and laborers. This work will also generate $200 billion in capital improvements.

And, that's just one initiative. Think of all the work that needs to be done in other areas, from repairing water infrastructure, to building fuel-efficient cars, to increasing food security. Think of all the potential in green industries, which, according to Forbes, dominate the fastest-hiring sectors. Think about all those on the unemployment lines who we can put back on the manufacturing lines. Think about the economic and environmental impact we can have on our communities.

I think about these things every day; they're why I support the development of a green economy. I just want to give people an opportunity to live free of pollution and poverty. I urge you to join this green movement.

No child should die from preventable asthma. No parent should have to make a choice between their job and their kids' health. Our economic and environmental struggles are linked. Let's overcome them together.

Did you know that your chances of falling down on the sidewalk increase the more you walk?

Did you also know that your likelihood of getting sunburn rises when you are out in the sun longer?

Somehow, those revelations didn't make the pages of the Los Angeles Times.Here's what did: citing that the number of people employed in the solar industry doubled last year to 100,000 workers, and that the wind industry now accounts for 75,000 jobs, an article concludes that more accidents are happening today than in the past - in very alarmist tones.

Normally, I would try to ignore this kind of noise. But, as a strong supporter of the green economy, I can't let this one go. Quoting someone from the Industrial Wind Action Group (an organization virulently opposed to wind turbines) saying a windmill is going to fall on someone? I hope that person has never been around a building with more than one story, or she might panic.

This article portrays clean energy as some sort of Wild Wild West that's constantly putting people and communities in harms way. It's not. As with any profession - or any time you leave your house - there are accidents. But the safety of wind power is staggering compared to traditional energy sources.

Take, for example, the coal industry. In 2010, 71 coal miners died on the job, more than double the number the previous year. Many more are suffering from lung disease because they are exposed to hazardous materials on a daily basis.

Coal dust is a main cause of Black Lung Disease, otherwise known as Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis (CWP). Every year, an estimated 1,500 former coal miners die from CWP. Those that don't are forced to live with a chronic cough, shortness of breath, and other troubling symptoms. And, workers are not the only ones suffering from these conditions.

386,000 tons of hazardous air pollutants are emitted from coal-fired power plants annually, according to the American Lung Association -- toxins that are finding their way into our backyards, our local playgrounds and neighborhoods. They are causing tens of thousands of heart attacks, asthma attacks and emergency room visits every year.

Now, this is a dangerous industry; this is what should scare Americans, not the green economy, which is nowhere near as hazardous -- not for workers, not for consumers and not for the general public.

That said: any accident on the job is one too many. That's why we've got to make sure that all workers on green projects have the education, training and qualifications needed to do safe and quality work.

Green For All is proud to partner with a number of organizations -- Solar Richmond, Laborers International Union of North America, and others -- who provide highly effective training programs that help produce a highly skilled and productive workforce. We have, and continue to support these important programs, and urge others to as well.

The equation is simple: The more we invest in training, the less accidents we'll have on the job. Furthermore, as it grows, the green economy, will save more and more lives and create healthier communities, while opening new doors of economic opportunity for people long ignored.

Now, this is the story that needs to be written about more often. That it's not poses the real danger to our communities.

A year ago, BP capped the blown-out Macondo well, stopping the flood of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The out-of-control well had gushed for nearly three months, after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and claimed the lives of 11 people working aboard. President Obama called it "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced." Ultimately, an estimated 205 million gallons of oil was released, disrupting the lives of thousands of people across the Gulf Coast.

The capping of the well was seen as a turning point in the disaster – the beginning of the end. But, a year after the oil has stopped gushing, are things any better on the Gulf Coast?

Gulf Coast residents describe the challenges they've endured since the Macondo Well was capped.

The phrase "green jobs" started as a kind of sloganized shorthand for a broader argument about clean technology as a source of economic growth and competitiveness in the 21st century. For some reason, it ended up being taken far too literally by both advocates and detractors, leading to a series of bean-counting skirmishes that cast more heat than light.

I've generally not gotten involved, but I confess I am weary of posts like this one from Stephen Gordon in The Globe and Mail that presume to lecture greens as though they are slow-witted children. If you will indulge me in some nitpicking.

Getting a quality job in a growing industry seems like a revolutionary concept these days.

Right now, millions of unemployed Americans are desperately searching for new opportunities, only to have their applications ignored and calls unanswered. Doors are constantly closed in their face. For many, the American Dream is fading; people, for the first time, feel that future generations will be worse off than they are.

That's why, in this unique moment, the green economy is a ray of hope; it's providing new jobs at a time when the rest of the economy is struggling.

Quick question: Do you think that tax subsidies for the "big five" oil companies -- which earned $32 billion in profit during the first quarter of the year -- are more important than the financial aid we give to low-income college students?

My answer: Of course not. Investing in our young people is a far better use of taxpayer dollars than giving handouts to some of the world's most profitable corporations. My guess is that you agree.

How does the oil industry feel? Well, they aren't sure. When asked this question by Senator Schumer at a congressional hearing yesterday, James Mulva, CEO of ConocoPhillips, uncomfortably refused to answer the question.

Additionally, he and his peers from ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron and Shell repeatedly complained about unfair and "discriminatory" treatment, saying that the American people -- who face outrageous prices at the gas pump -- are unjustly scrutinizing the four billion dollars a year in tax breaks oil companies receive.

Really? Clearly they don't see or recognize that Americans are facing hardship and unfair challenges every day.

Just ask the young people who may lose their chance to go to college because the House leadership has proposed cuts to the Federal Pell Grant program.

It's unfair that more than two-thirds (70%) of Hispanics live in areas that do not meet federal air quality standards for one or more pollutants, according to the National Alliance for Hispanic Health.

It's unfair that 1 in 6 African-American children suffer from asthma, and that children of color are more likely to grow up in areas with dangerous levels of ozone.

It's unfair the food stamp program is threatened with a 20% cut at a time when so many families are hungry.

I have news for oil companies: There are true injustices occurring on a daily basis in America. Eliminating your tax subsidies is not one them.

It's the truth plain and simple; and it's time we called out these companies. For this opinion, Mr. Mulva would say that I, and the many others who share this view, are "un-American." And, when asked about these comments at the hearing, he refused to apologize for his rhetoric.

Again, really?

During times of crisis, true Americans, especially those in positions of power, ask themselves, "What can I do to help?" Instead, these executives ask themselves, "What can I do to ensure that government keeps helping me?"

Now is the time for government to choose who it serves: the oil companies or everyone else?

This is not a Democratic or Republican issue; it's about who we are as a country and where we want to go.

Do we want an America based on those timeless values and ideals of fairness and opportunity for all?

Or, do we want a country where the rich play by their own rules, while budgets are balanced on the backs of the middle class and poor?

The answer is clear and it's time to take action.

Oil companies have been given generous tax breaks for too long; now it's the American people's turn to have a chance at the American Dream.

Last week Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis was in the Twin Cities to meet with representatives from a wide range of groups about creating green jobs in the state of Minnesota. Several elected officials, environmental organizations, labor groups, green business and others were present at a roundtable with the Secretary, hosted by the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation, to discuss the GreenPOWER program, and the pros and cons of green business and the job market here in Minnesota.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and others raised their concerns about growing disparities in unemployment between whites and blacks in the Twin Cities - Minnesota has the second greatest racial disparity when it comes to unemployment in the United States. There has been some progress, but we still have a way to go concerning equity. The Secretary stated that the green business movement must be strong enough to lift all boats, and that it must not leave anybody behind; that we can fight pollution and poverty at the same time.

It's not always easy being green – especially if you're a college or university that serves primarily minority students, many from low-income families. Going green requires up-front investment that many of these institutions believe they can't afford. Without large – or in some cases any – endowments, and dependent on tuitions that can't be increased much without pricing their students out of a college education, many institutions wonder if going green is feasible for colleges that serve students of color.

UNCF (United Negro College Fund) and its Building Green at Minority Serving Institutions program shows that minority colleges and universities can go green – and we have the personal stories and survey results to prove it. The Building Green initiative, a Kresge Foundation-funded program of the UNCF Institute for Capacity Building, has surveyed colleges and universities that serve large percentages of minority students, and bringing them together in "learning institutes" around the country to celebrate successes and take stock of what needs to be done so that all minority-serving college campuses can become environmentally sustainable. The initiative is a partnership of UNCF, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, and Second Nature Campus Green Builder.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/I52vlPByrUc?rel=0

Markese Bryant, a 2010 graduate of UNCF member institution Morehouse College, typifies the commitment to sustainability and a can-do spirit that inspire optimism about helping minority campuses go green. After attending all three 2010 UNCF Building Green Learning Institutes, Bryant was hired by Green for All, an Oakland, California-based organization that works to advance a clean energy economy as a solution to both environmental and economic challenges, to coordinate the HBCU Green Ambassadors internship program, which trains and supports students organizing sustainability initiatives on HBCU campuses. As "Do Dat Bryant," Bryant has also produced a rap video, "The Dream Reborn (My President is Green)" which links the mission of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (a graduate, like Bryant, of Morehouse College) to the presidency of Barack Obama.

The commitment to going green on minority campuses is confirmed by a survey recently completed by UNCF's Building Green program. UNCF's report, the "Minority-Serving Institutions Green Report," identified several highlights in its survey of campus sustainability practices:

Sixty percent of participating colleges and universities have green buildings up and running on campus or under construction.

The UNCF report is based on survey of institutions that attended Building Green Learning Institutes in Atlanta, Minneapolis and San Antonio.

But if the report shows unmistakable signs of progress, it also documents areas in which progress has been slow to take place. Only 7 percent of participating schools with dining halls compost food scraps. Twelve percent reported that they have a detailed sustainability plan and 10 percent have written or approved an official environmental policy. Twenty one percent have included sustainability in their master or strategic plans. Only 19 percent of participating schools generate renewable energy on their campuses. And only 6 percent of participating schools have buildings certified to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, although an additional 29 percent have buildings that have been constructed to LEED specifications.

In most cases where sustainability efforts have lagged, it has been because of lack of resources. Almost all participating schools said that funding would make the biggest difference in fulfilling their environmental interests. Institutions often view green building as an expense or an unaffordable luxury. And it's true: Typically, green building construction costs are 1-2.5 percent higher than those for non-green buildings.

But a crucial part of the Building Green message is that colleges and universities need to look at campus sustainability not as a cost or expense but as an investment. Investing in a green initiative pays medium-term returns that often amount to ten times the increased expenditure during the life-cycle of a building or renovation in saving on energy, water use and waste disposal. It makes the college or university more attractive to both prospective students and faculty. And every green-building or recycling project provides a learning experience for every student who hears about it or passes by.

Like "Do Dat" Bryant's rap video, it's a powerful Earth Day message: Traditionally tight-budgeted minority colleges and universities have done a lot with a little. But we need to do more, and the increased investment will pay off with a planet and individual campuses that are not only environmentally sustainable, but more financially sustainable as well.

This Earth Day, consider this: the coal and oil industries -- industries tethered to systems of energy that are not only unsustainable for the planet but aren't even sustainable as businesses over the long term -- have successfully lobbied and scratched to drag America from first to third place in renewable energy investment.

This isn't a trivial, academic issue of economic competition. This is an example of the worst of Washington, DC -- one that puts our nation's future economic strength at risk.

This past weekend thousands of young volunteers attended the Power Shift conference in Washington, D.C. to learn how they can better organize their communities in all fifty states. Today, on tax day, when everyone will be shifting their radar away from the departing threat of a possible government shut-down to national debt debates, all of those organizers will be in front of the White House and outside the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at 10 am to send a clear message: we're done paying a yacht-full of people to leave our planet a scorched lifeless rock. It's time to make them pay.

As Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, the CEO of Green for All, put it, "To those who've put short term profits over long term health: It's over. It's done. Your time is up."

Authors: Green For All
Originally posted on Power Shift 2011.Jomar Floyd is a Green For All College Ambassador at Florida A & M.

Two years ago, from February 27 to March 2, 2009, 11,000 young leaders from around the world proactively participated by making a voyage to Washington, D.C for Power Shift 09. We petitioned for the President and Congress rebuild our economy and secure our future by passing bold, just climate and energy policies that prioritize jobs and renewable energy. Van Jones, the founder of Green for All, was in attendance to speak about “green collar jobs” and how young people will be agents of change in this 21st century.

Worth a watch today, this video (via grist) narrated by Susan Sarandon, shows firsthand footage of mountaintop removal coal mining and its impacts on Appalachian mountains, drinking water and families.

If most of us have a notion of mountaintop-removal mining, it's that somewhere in Appalachia a bunch of extras from Winter's Bone are getting their view spoiled by some trucks and TNT. But these are real people, and the environmental catastrophe they're experiencing -- entire counties turned into flattened moonscapes like you'd expect after a nuclear bomb -- is entirely unnecessary, even for a country as coal-addicted as the United States.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins | CEO
Originally posted onHuffington Post
If a fire broke out in your office right now, would you know what to do? Would you know where to go? You likely would, thanks in large part to codes requiring fire exits and fire drills.
Today, we accept these basic standards without even pausing; they are plain common sense rules government has developed to benefit and protect the public.
But, as crazy as it sounds, there was a time when fire codes were considered burdensome regulations by businesses — employees had to risk their lives just to go to work. A century ago this month, for example, near the end of the workday, a fire broke out at Triangle Waist Company in New York City, engulfing the top floors of the building.
500 workers, mostly young immigrant women, rushed to the doors, only to find they were locked — the owners wanted to keep their employees from leaving while on the job. Panic ensued. 146 people died, including many who jumped out of the 10th story windows to escape the flames.
As word of the tragedy spread, outrage grew. Government officials, recognizing the need for reform, proposed a series of new regulations that were eventually adopted.
They just wanted to raise the standards of acceptable behavior, which included requiring businesses to hold fire drills and install water sprinklers.
Nothing too radical, right? Not according to many business leaders at the time who complained that new regulations would cripple the economy. According to the Cry Wolf Project, one said the rules would result in "the wiping out of industry in this state." Another, channeling Grover Norquist, stated that "to my mind this is all wrong….The experience of the past proves conclusively that the best government is the least possible government."
Anyone who has been to New York City in the past 100 years knows that it managed just fine — government's work to raise the standards of acceptable behavior didn't hinder its growth.
Time and again, this same old story played out throughout history: government introduces new regulations to make life a little better and safer, and the "men who cry wolf" respond by screaming that the world is ending. That story continues today.
Case in point: The Environmental Protection Agency's new mercury and air toxics rule, which will raise the baseline for the amount of mercury and other hazardous pollutants emitted by power plants. The new standards, which are court-mandated, don't require that power plants emit floral-scented perfumes and pure water vapor, but just that the lowest acceptable levels be a little higher.
And, in response, this generation's "men who cry wolf" pulls out its old playbook; they call the new rule a "job killer," and recklessly use fear to make others think it's bad for our economy. Why? Because the rules benefit the general public, and not just their own personal interests.
As Ronald Reagan would say: There they go again.
The truth is that this proposed rule would actually create jobs – but not only for the businesses lobbying Congress. A report from Ceres recently reported that implementation of this rule — along with the proposed Clean Air Transport Rule — will produce 1.46 million jobs over the next five years, in areas like construction, maintenance and installation.
Working class communities would benefit both economically and environmentally by this simple shift in standards — but ideologues and dirty energy interests don't care about that. They care about their own businesses, they care about their own agendas.
If you lived directly next to a power plant and had a dial that could set how much toxic mercury settled into your yard and came in your windows, what would you set it to? The EPA is turning that dial down, and the same rhetorical ghosts we've heard moaning and whispering for a century are trying to stay its hand.
Just because a few bucks are going to someone else.

A report titled “INVESTMENT OF PROCEEDS FROM RGGI CO2 ALLOWANCES” isn’t something that really invites you to read it. Which is too bad - because it’s worth a look.

First, some background. RGGI stands for Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The initiative put a limit on polluting carbon dioxide emissions in the Northeast, which power plants could exceed if they bought permits to do so. The proceeds from those permits were then invested in energy efficiency projects and clean-energy technologies. The short-hand for this, of course, is cap-and-trade.

The folks at the NRDC dug through this report chronicling the program - and found some remarkable successes.

Over the time period measured, carbon dioxide emissions dropped 30%.

More than $789 million dollars has been generated and invested in mostly green technologies and jobs.

Energy efficiency programs funded by RGGI through December 2010 will create nearly 18,000 job years – that is, the equivalent of 18,000 full-time jobs that last one year (these jobs are created when states invest in good programs and when energy consumers use their savings in their communities).

That’s a remarkable finding. The program cut emissions, dropped utility rates, invested in green technologies - and created thousands of jobs? It really shouldn’t be surprising. The findings here mirror the success of the EPA’s cap-and-trade system for reducing sulfur emissions - and the resulting acid rain.

The NRDC’s summary also gives specific examples of successes in various states that is worth a read. Or you can read the report itself - if you don’t mind the title.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins | CEO, Green For All
Originally posted onNational Geographic
Earlier this month, members of the Green For All Fellowship program wowed a standing-room only crowd at the 2011 Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference in Washington DC. One of those fellows, Zoe Hollomon, from the Massachusetts Avenue Project, spoke movingly about her efforts to bring affordable, nutritious food to Buffalo.
It was an important presentation, especially in light of the food crisis developing around the world. As The Economist and others have highlighted, prices have skyrocketed, causing havoc in markets and countries across the globe. Here at home, food prices will jump between 3% and 4% this year according to the U.S. Agriculture Department's forecast.
These developments have a devastating impact, particularly on low-income communities. Parents, who are already struggling, are wondering if they'll ever be able to afford quality, healthy food for their children. Yes they can if Zoe Hollomon has her way.
Zoe is having an enormous impact on her community. It is an important story, and I'm glad that she has agreed to share it with the National Geographic readers:

Most people don't understand how Food Justice and Food Security relate to Social Justice and Environmental Justice. I'd like to tell you a story to about a family from my community which I hope will shed some light on these critical issues and their interconnections."Kimmy is a single mom living in extreme poverty with her three small children on the west side of Buffalo. She works two jobs just to pay for the basics and to keep her family afloat.Everyday after school her three children play outside until she gets home; she quickly cooks dinner for them and the next door neighbor's two kids in exchange for her kids' evening care while she goes to her night job. Each week she tries to go to the grocery store but must take two buses and her small children with her as well as a small cart for her groceries. The trip usually takes about four hours and she can only get what she can carry in her cart.Most weeks, because of her busy work schedule, she must get food from the corner store, which is mainly Mac-n-Cheese, microwave dinners, packaged noodles or canned foods. Otherwise her choices are one of the five fast food restaurants in her neighborhood. She knows the options aren't good but they allow her to get by, given her hectic schedule. Her kids usually come home from school hungry and go to the corner store for chips and soda since they are cheap and readily available."This is the story of millions of people in low-income neighborhoods across the nation. Food security, or the availability of fresh, healthy and culturally appropriate food, is commonly perceived only as an issue in countries overrun with civil war or facing extreme poverty.It is however, a fact of life and a major health and economic issue for many Americans living in low-income communities. In Buffalo alone, over two-thirds of low-income communities are "food deserts", meaning that there are none or too few healthy food options that meet basic nutritional needs. In my community the ratio of corner stores that don't offer healthy food versus stores that do is an outstanding 18:1!What's more, the industrialized food complex, producing the bulk of the food available for consumption is also having devastating effects on the environment and our health. Globally, the food sector is the number one contributor of carbon emissions, heating our atmosphere to levels that are unfit to sustain life on earth.Organizations like Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) in Buffalo and others across the country are taking these issues head on, creating innovative solutions like Aquaponics, Urban Composting, and Mobile Farmers Markets. They are connecting farmers and school districts, as well as identifying policy changes that will make food production more equitable and sustainable.I am deeply inspired by the young people I am currently working with and those who have come before us and fought against giant odds to put people and planet over greed and profit.For my term of service as a Green For All Academy Fellow Candidate, I am bringing together local and national organizations to integrate the pressing issues of food justice and food security into the environmental and social justice movements. We cannot put the health of people and planet and the health of the economy on opposite ends of the scale.

Zoe Hollomon and the Green For All Fellows have shown an incredible commitment to service, community and building a sustainable future. That's why so many people left their panel at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference feeling energized and hopeful.
That energy, that innovation, inspires and guides our work on a daily basis. We are proud to be able to share it – and we look forward to seeing what develops over the year to come.

Green building continued to grow even through a deep economic recession. The US green building market has expanded dramatically since 2008 and according to a new report titled, Green Outlook 2011, by McGraw-Hill Construction, it is projected to double in size by 2015.

Green construction starts increased from $42 billion in 2008 to $71 billion in 2010, and it is expected to grow to $135 billion by 2015.

Additionally, a survey of building owners indicated that green projects reduce operating costs (13.6% on average for new buildings and 8.5% for retrofits), increase building values (10.9% for new buildings and 6.8% for retrofits) and increase their return on investment (9.9% for new buildings and 19.2% for retrofits.)

Why did you guess that? Probably because the majority of Atlanta is black, and our community is three times more likely to die from asthma than the white population.

Our chances of living near hazardous industrial pollution sites are 80 percent greater than white Americans, according to 2005 data from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Our children are breathing in dirtier air on the way to school. Our grandparents are more likely to drink contaminated tap water from their faucets.Our community is disproportionately exposed to toxic conditions.

But, let me ask another question: Is the asthma rate higher in Detroit or Knoxville?

Surprisingly to some, it’s Knoxville, which is mostly white.

The environmental struggle isn’t a black issue; it’s an economic issue, devastating low-income communities of all races and backgrounds.

Put simply: If you’re poor, you are at greater risk because pollution and poverty are intricately linked. The sad truth is that living in underserved communities has come to mean accepting exposure to potentially deadly environmental hazards.

So while others define the climate crisis by the melting glaciers and desert droughts abroad, we must focus on the crisis that has impacted generations of families living in poverty here at home.

It would take a once-in-a-generation opportunity to break this vicious cycle. Thankfully, we have such an opportunity right now: the green economy.

The question Americans must ask themselves is do we want to establish ourselves as leaders of this exciting new sector by getting involved right now, or do we want to drag our feet and fall behind the rest of the world?

We at Green For All believe that we should take meaningful action now, and do it right so that this new wave of growth and innovation involves all Americans.

What does this mean for the underserved? It means they will finally have a path to the middle class. Think about all the opportunities.

Repairing America’s water infrastructure; retrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient; and manufacturing green products are just some of the new initiatives that will create millions of new, good-paying jobs.

Green For All wants these jobs to be available to all communities. To accomplish this goal, we are guided by the three E’s — engagement, education and empowerment.

We engage with a variety of partners across the country to identify areas where we can enhance environmental conditions, while creating jobs for all who want them.

We educate stakeholders — from workers to entrepreneurs — so that they have the tools they need to succeed in the 21st century economy.

And, through various initiatives, we empower talented local leaders with the resources they need to shape a green future for their neighborhoods.

Obviously, this is just a quick snapshot into Green For All. I look forward to sharing more about the organization, its work and the talented team behind it in future blogs.

I also encourage you to get involved in our effort to finally address the great challenges facing our economy and environment.

Together, we can demand that our children have quality air to breathe in on their way to school.

Together, we can create jobs that lift people out of poverty.

Together, we can ensure that the long march toward environmental and economic equality continues.

The headlines from the State of the Union said, “Clean Energy.” What I heard was: “we need to do this together.”

President Obama laid out an ambitious agenda to spur innovation and remain competitive globally. But he also used that agenda to send an important message in a fractured political time: The time for division has passed.

The case for robust investment in clean energy is clear: the wind, solar and biofuels industries are expanding at a time when so many others are contracting.

At Green For All, we have a history of building coalitions with government leaders and innovators at all levels and in all sectors of society.

We build on this work every day. Last month, Green For All was proud to join with the American Association of Blacks in Energy, the U.S. Black Chamber and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials to organize a meeting with the goal of building an inclusive clean energy economy.

Meeting with a range of government and business leaders, we discussed ways to work together to bring good-paying green jobs and clean air to every neighborhood in America.

Of particular interest to us: oft-neglected low-income communities. They disproportionately suffer from the energy crisis. Families already struggling can’t afford rising costs of heating their homes, and the fallout from energy creation settles in their backyards. Literally.

Despite their pressing needs, the poor have little voice in the debate over economic and environmental policy—they can’t afford lobbyists.

It’s time to give them that voice. Bringing their concerns to the table is a win for all parties; a diversity of perspectives generates more ideas, and steers conversations in a more productive direction.

At the table, we stress the need for clean energy education. Communities deserve to know about the benefits of installing energy efficient windows, weatherizing homes and changing their thermostats, which, in the long run, will cut energy costs. Increasing access to this knowledge will empower people to create environmentally sustainable lives.

At the table, we also fight to make clean energy the equal opportunity sector; future policies must require that the green jobs created are available to the most qualified applicants—regardless of class or background.

All the poor ask for is a chance; now is our moment to give them that chance to succeed. But, we must seize this moment as partners—nothing significant is accomplished alone.

That’s why Green For All has partnered with groups like the American Association of Blacks in Energy, which is doing great work to inform and inspire communities today, so that they can be ready for tomorrow’s energy challenges.

Together, we are fighting for the cleaner, fairer future that the next generation deserves, and are glad that President Obama has championed the potential of the clean energy economy.

Now, it’s up to us—working as partners— to turn this promise into progress for all.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins | CEO, Green For All
Originally posted on The Great Energy Challenge
"There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution."
The revolution Dr. King spoke of in his speech at the National Cathedral in 1968 was one of the most transformative of the 20th Century – the painful transition from a racially divided America to an America stitched together, however roughly. But the sentiment holds true for every revolution.
Today, there’s another revolution underway – a revolution that is restructuring America’s energy future. It’s changing the way we work and live. In this time of rapid change, all those caught sleeping, or even hitting the snooze button, will be left behind.
As we get ready to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday, life and legacy, it is not enough for us to reflect on the past. We must look forward and take action, we must be deliberate in shaping this revolution – because Dr. King’s work remains unfinished.
Today, there is still a great need to lift communities out of poverty and into productivity. The unemployment rate is still significantly higher in the Hispanic and African American communities. And low-income and minority communities are disproportionately more likely to breathe in polluted air, drink dirty water and suffer from asthma. As long as these disparities exist, our nation cannot fulfill its full promise as a land of opportunity and equality. And as long as these problems exist for any American, the revolution is not complete.
It is time for the nation to wake up and fight for a green economy that addresses the health and opportunity of all communities. It will take a collective effort to make this happen. Dr. King’s story teaches us that one man alone cannot achieve this kind of meaningful change. It takes a movement. He empowered others.
In this tradition, Green For All has established a number of educational initiatives to empower and engage community leaders across the country about the clean-energy economy. In 2008, we began the Green For All Fellowship which provides training programs focused on the green movement to talented and up-and-coming leaders. When the program concludes, these leaders take the skills they have acquired to make a difference in their own neighborhoods. So far, over 100 local leaders from communities of color and low-income communities have graduated and become Green For All Fellows. Block by block, they work diligently to bring new opportunities and sound environmental strategies to areas long ignored.

Last year, we also launched the College Ambassador Program. Partnering with historically black colleges and universities, we aim to cultivate the next generation of green leaders. These students take part in expert trainings and lead by example, sharing a vision of a green future with their fellow students.
We view empowering others as necessary work. The transition to the green economy is inevitable because of decreasing supplies of natural resources, and increasing demand for environmentally sustainable products. Americans must now ask themselves if they want to be leaders of this movement or sleep while we fall behind the rest of the world.
For Green For All, the answer is clear: We need to get to work now. We have this unique opportunity to better our environment, while creating jobs that can help close the economic gap between communities. That is why these college students, our Green For All Fellows and all of those they engage are wide awake and ready to seize this opportunity. Following in Dr. King’s great tradition of selfless service, the rest of America should set their alarm clocks – and rouse those who are still sleeping.

"Minority, low-income and tribal populations are disproportionately exposed to and impacted by pollution," the New York Times reports, and the cumulative consequences of multiple exposures and even non-chemical stress factors can intensify the impact of any single pollutant.

The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $7M in grants to study the combined impact of pollutants and social factors in several low-income communities:

"This research could pave the way for more interdisciplinary work that is responsive to community concerns and environmental justice."

– Dr. Paul Anastas, assistant administrator for the E.P.A. Office of Research and Development

Worth a read today, this article from the New York Times, which indicates recent cold snap is a further sign of global warming, not an argument against it:

The ongoing disappearance of sea ice in the Arctic from elevated temperatures is a factor to changes in atmospheric pressure that control jet streams of air, explained James Overland, an oceanographer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. That is because ice-less ocean is darker and, thus, absorbs more solar heat, which in turn spews warmer air than average back into the Arctic atmosphere.

You have to love the holidays. They're a time of celebration, family – and, of course, presents! But they can also be a time of financial stress, and with big increases in waste and travel, they are also a tax on our environment.

That's why Green The Block is focusing on education, reuse and community this holiday season.

We're getting an early start on our 2011 action plans as we explore a few ways to help green the block this holiday season. Check out three ways you can join the fun below, and be sure to check out the resource page for more detail on these ideas.

"Story of Stuff" Movie Night

How are we supposed to deal with our stuff if we don't know where it comes from or what happens to it after we get rid of it? The Story of Stuff (YouTube) is a short, 20 minute movie that demystifies how stuff is created and what happens to stuff when we're through with it. It's a great way to start a conversation about how we can be more deliberate about the things we buy.

Re-Gift Exchange

We know the saying "one man's trash is another’s treasure." There is no better time than after the holiday to prove that it's true. Unload some stuff that might otherwise get thrown away. Arrange a community re-gift exchange. Use your local community center, school, or even your garage to organize a swap with your neighbors.

Upcycle It!

Upcycling, taking something old and creating something totally new and useful out of it, is a great strategy to show your creativity during the holidays. Take old t-shirts and make reusable bags out of them, or turn old bicycle tubes into a durable wallet – and what's an old record, but a coaster waiting to happen? The possibilities are endless. And who knows? Maybe you can create a business out of it!

Born in San Francisco I grew up in Suisun, California, a small town of small, aging ranch-style houses on a slough that fed the Bay. It’s the kind of town that, usually if someone thinks they’ve heard of it, they’re actually thinking of somewhere else.

Shortly after we moved there, I developed asthma. My mother, who’d scraped and saved to move my sisters and I out of the city to a new life in the country, took me to the doctor. There, she learned that the move, the air in Suisun, was what caused my asthma – that a move she thought was a symbol of her success as a parent was actually, in some ways, a failure.

But it wasn’t an environmental issue to us. It was polluted air, yes, but it was light years from the environmental issues that led to protests at nuclear plants and the ubiquitous “Keep Tahoe Blue” bumper stickers that adorned expensive cars. Bad air was part of an affordable community. I learned how our economy provided paychecks and poisons in a package – and gave people little choice but to take the
bundled deal.

Over the years, we’ve seen people get less and less in the way of pay, and more and more in the way of pollution. This has led to two crises in this country: the economy and the environment. As the CEO of Green For All, the work I do now is dedicated to ending that trend, to building an economy where mothers like mine don’t have to choose between a job and the health of their families.

What we have learned at Green For All is that in order to address the challenges of that raw, packaged deal we must develop new engines of economic strength and employment that limit our environmentally harmful activities while expanding our helpful ones. We’ve learned that we will only be able to transition to a clean energy economy if our policies address the needs of all Americans – from the coalminer in West Virginia to women like my mother. My intention is to share with readers of this blog the ways in which we’re fighting for that transition – and how you can help make it happen.

After all, unlike when I was a child, the connection between a damaged environment and damaged health is easy to spot, and the opportunity a green economy can provide to poor communities should not be in doubt. The first challenge, though, is to be explicit in identifying those connections and those opportunities.

It wasn’t until I joined Green For All that I recognized the moment I should have become an environmentalist: sitting in that doctor’s office while he looked at my cough. Our job is to make cause-and-effect like that clear – and to bring people to the environmental movement much, much sooner.

In our moments of hope, we look to and count on our elected officials to make the right decision. In our moments of cynicism, we fear that they will instead make wrong decisions in order to make nebulously defined "special interests" happy. So when our elected officials take bold action on critical issues, it's important to stand behind them. And when that bold leadership comes under threat from actual, powerful, wealthy interests, it is imperative that we come to our representatives' defense.

On November 2, Californians will have a chance to do just that. Proposition 23 is a ballot measure designed to kill green jobs and bolster oil and dirty energy by effectively repealing AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. It's an important statewide and national issue.

Every year, air pollution in California contributes to 19,000 deaths and skyrocketing rates of asthma, cancer, and other diseases — problems most pronounced in low-income communities and communities of color. But California has taken strong steps recently to try to change that. Prop 23 wants to undo that progress and subject the next generation to even more of this pollution.

It would be one thing if Prop 23 backers were asking us to sacrifice health and air quality for economic growth and prosperity. That would still be a bad trade, but at least I could see the merits of a debate. Instead, Prop 23 would cost California jobs and growth, too.

Prop 23 is an attempt to kill California's landmark Global Warming Solutions Act. Also known as AB32, this law holds polluters accountable and requires them to reduce air pollution that threatens human health and contributes to climate change. This not only cleans up California's air, but also bolsters California's economy. By mandating lower levels of pollution, AB32 spurs investment and growth in clean technology sectors. Right now, 500,000 Californians hold clean-tech or green jobs. That number is growing; since 2005 statewide green jobs have grown ten times faster than total job growth. But all that will stop if California passes the Dirty Energy Proposition, which would turn back this growth and cost California thousands of jobs.

Why would anyone want to sacrifice both the environment and the economy? Because one group would profit from killing the Global Warming Solutions Act: dirty energy companies who want to keep polluting. That's why Prop 23's biggest backers are Texas oil giants Tesoro and Valero.

Texas oil may like Prop 23, but it is bad for California. More than that, it is bad for the country. This election will be the first exchange in the national debate about clean air and green jobs that promises to unfold in 2011.

Right now, the federal Environmental Protection Agency is deciding how to exercise its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, the pollution that causes climate change. This is part of the EPA's job under the Clean Air Act. But before it can even start this crucial work, some members of Congress are doing everything they can to rob the EPA of its authority. Much like Proposition 23, they want to stop the EPA from cleaning up the air and spurring growth in clean energy and technology.

Doing the right thing is already hard enough. Prop 23 would make it even harder for elected officials to take the right action for our environment. Voting no on Prop 23 will protect statewide priorities like cleaning up the air, building green industry that provides jobs to thousands of Californians, and protecting our planet. But perhaps more importantly, voting no on Prop 23 will tell our representatives to keep doing the right thing, to keep fighting the good fight.

I spend a lot of time outdoors, whether it is practicing or competing. Over the years, I have noticed changes. Hotter summers. Shorter winters. Crazier weather. Thicker, more polluted air. Some call it global warming, others climate change. Regardless of the name, it impacts everything from our snow quality to quality of life.

Outdoor sports are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In response, Green For All – in partnership with the Dew Tour – has launched Protect the 360°, a campaign to engage and activate the action-sports community in efforts to curb climate change.

Protect the 360° isn’t about patchouli oil or sporting socks with sandals. Nor is it about sacrifices. The campaign focuses on simple ways to green your life and help protect the planet – actions like turning off your lights when not in use or skating instead of driving short distances. It may sound insignificant, but if we all do one thing, it can add up to make a big difference in curbing climate change.

Think you are pretty green already? Check out Protect360.org and take the “Tread Lightly” survey. Fans are immediately entered to win a trip for two to the Dew Tour finals in Las Vegas. The winner will also participate in a Protect the 360° service event with top Dew Tour athletes and appear in a campaign video. Not in front of a computer? Verizon Wireless subscribers can also text PROTECT360 to 2999 to enter. (Non-Verizon customers can enter to win by e-mailing their information to info@protect360.org.)

I am far from an environmentalist, but I do believe we all have a responsibility to protect the 360°. I am doing my part, and I hope you will join me in doing yours.

Bucky Lasek is a professional skateboarder, regarded as one of the most consistent vert skateboarders in the sport.

A year ago today, Green The Block was born in a ceremony held in the West Wing of the White House while President Barack Obama celebrated his own 48th birthday. It was a tremendous honor to stand on such a grand stage as we launched our new effort to ensure that communities of color have a leading role in shaping America's emerging green economy - an honor we have spent the last year doing our best to live up to.

For twelve months, Green The Block has been working tirelessly to ensure that American green industry fulfills its potential to revitalize our struggling communities, so ravaged by decades of economic and environmental degradation, while effectively curbing climate change. We began by doing what we do best-organizing within our communities. On September 11, 2009, President Obama called on Americans to engage in a National Day of Service. Green The Block responded by sponsoring and supporting more than 100 service events around the country. This powerful demonstration showed how widespread support for green jobs and green investment is in communities of color.

We were proud of our work on the National Day of Service, but we were not content. For us, that was only the beginning, kicking off monthly Green The Block "calls to action" that gave everyday people a variety of opportunities to help build a green economy in their own communities.

We began in March by honoring Women's History Month with a focus on "Women In The Green Economy." We shared the stories of women like BPI Certified Energy Auditor Dawn Moody, a longtime Philadelphia resident and green-collar worker, and Evelin Palacios of the Women's Action to Gain Economic Security (WAGES), who co-founded her own eco-housecleaning co-op after being exposed to toxic cleaning products her whole life.

In April, Green The Block partnered with Reverb's Campus Consciousness Tour, featuring Hip Hop artist Drake. This partnership allowed us to reach out to thousands of young people who are ready to make a difference in their communities. Drake is changing the music game with his sound and energy, and changing campuses and communities with his decision to go green with Green The Block. As our call to action, we invited people to celebrate "Earth Day on Every Block." In partnership with Drake, we mobilized more than 3,500 students, activists, and community members in more than 20 states to make a personal commitment to lower their carbon footprint and to spread the word. This was a huge step in communities where Earth Day has often passed unnoted.

In May, Green the Block congratulated high school, junior college and college grads, highlighting first generation graduates and their families. Knowing these young people were starting their adult lives, we gave them information about, resources for, and opportunities to make that beginning as green as possible. From getting rid of their old furniture to finding their new careers, Green the Block helped make 2010 a green graduation.

June was the real beginning of summer, so Green The Block launched a "Stay Cool Campaign." We highlighted hundreds of organizations nationwide doing work to help families weatherize their homes for little to no cost. Weatherization is a cheap, easy, and effective way to combat both the temperature and save money at the same time - and it creates green jobs in local communities.

In July, our "Healthy Foods, Healthy Communities" campaign focused on how going green could improve health and wellness in communities of color. Green The Block provided information about what healthy food choices can look like, how farmers markets can provide cheap, healthy, and locally produced food, and encouraging our members to spread the word with food-themed movie nights or book clubs.

Now, in August, we find ourselves celebrating our first birthday, right along with the president. As we reflect on a year of hard and rewarding work, we are reminded that every day is a birthday for our country - that is it is constantly being born and reborn from the dreams and desires, the fears and frailties, of its latest heirs. We are filled with hope about the country we can build together, but we are also wary of what could happen to our country if we don't build the future together.

It is difficult to imagine a greener country, when in just a few short weeks we are faced with the 5th anniversary of the most significant environmental and human rights catastrophe our country has ever seen in Hurricane Katrina. Coupling this anniversary with the BP Oil Disaster, growing coal mining accidents, and the glaring lack of comprehensive national legislation to transition our nation to a safer and more sustainable economy, there are far too many stories of tragedy and destruction. Regardless, we must not ignore the stories of families and communities praying for new opportunity and a brighter future.

Now is the time to come together - not just to address the problems of today, but to build for the promise of tomorrow. If the past year has taught us anything, it's that we can have the country we need and deserve, a country where every community has ample opportunities for health and wealth, a country where we take care of each other and the planet. But to do that, we need to work together.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is the President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund. He is a minister, community activist, and organizer, and one of the most influential people in Hip Hop political life. For more information on the Hip Hop Caucus visit www.hiphopcaucus.org and follow him on Twitter @RevYearwood.

As Senators enter the final rounds of negotiations on the climate and energy bill, big utility companies apparently are making unconscionable demands that threaten the health and safety of all Americans.

For example, The Hill reports: "Power company officials are now asking for relief from upcoming EPA restrictions on pollution the agency has long regulated under the Clean Air Act, including ozone, particulate matter and lead." Other stories also suggest that big utilities want the United States Senate to somehow bargain away EPA's authority to protect America from dirty air and water.

These demands are unacceptable.

The American people deserve a climate and energy bill that not only improves air quality, but also creates jobs that will help pull the economy out of recession. This bill is in danger of doing neither. In spite of this, we are hopeful that there is a better, more equitable approach to this legislation. We believe that American policy can be smart enough to protect both our children and our grandchildren.

The Gulf oil spill, the coal mine explosion in West Virginia--these are just the most recent in a long line of disasters that prove our current dirty energy economy is broken. Our reliance on these fossil fuels endangers the lives of countless Americans. We believe that Americans should not have to choose between personal safety and putting food on the table for our families.

There is only one federal agency standing between our communities and even worse degradation: the Environmental Protection Agency. If the bill limits the ability of the EPA to enforce greenhouse gas regulation, or worse limits the agency's ability to enforce regulation of mercury and ozone, the American people will suffer immediate and long-term health consequences, from asthma to early death.

If the Senate can get this right, this historic climate and energy bill will maintain our clean air protections, while opening the door to a new era: one in which our nation is no longer addicted to dirty, dangerous fuels; no longer dependent on overseas supplies of oil; and finally able to put millions to work in clean, new industries.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Crossposted fromCNN/AC360
On April 20th, the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico tragically killing eleven men working on the BP oil rig and choking the Gulf Coast with millions of gallons of oil — oil that is still pouring into the waters today. Thirty days later, we are no closer to knowing how to contain and stop the leak, or how extensive — or long-lasting — the damage will be. But we have been awakened to the dirty realities of our fossil-fuel addiction.
Thirty days later and the guesswork to basic questions continue. Even the most conservative estimates have the oil output at 210,000 gallons every day. But experts think that number could be as high as 4,200,000 gallons a day — 20 times as high.
How far will the oil slick spread? Currently nineteen percent of the Gulf of Mexico has been closed to fishing with the spill potentially reaching the Florida Keys and even further to Cuba. As we try to understand the scope of the spill, scientists are growing increasingly concerned about the plumes of oil that are spreading beneath the ocean surface – destruction unseen to us but felt at great depths.
We don't have answers from BP, but we do have empty assurances that the impact will be "very, very modest."
The Gulf Coast Catastrophe has already done heartbreaking damage to both our environment and the American worker, with no end in sight. In the regional fishing communities, the spill's decimation of sea life has left thousands of fisherfolk scrambling to make ends meet and wondering about their future. The strong regional tourism industry, particularly in New Orleans, now has another disaster to recover from just a few short years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the coast. Even shipping in the Gulf — a crucial industry not just for the region but for the entire country — is in danger as shipping lanes remain vulnerable to contamination that could slow traffic considerably.
That economic damage does not even touch on the harm that BP's oil spill is doing to the regional environment. Again, our information is partial — but we know that marine wildlife is in incredible danger. It could take years, or even decades, for the ecological system to recover from this.
BP must be held accountable. Just this year, it closed its solar manufacturing plant in Maryland, resulting in 320 lost jobs. Now, with the spill, the oil giant has shut down not just a single factory but entire industries, costing thousands of jobs.
It's time for BP to build up the economy instead of tearing it down.
BP can start by investing in new, safe jobs in the Gulf Coast to replace the jobs they have destroyed. A $1 billion, long-term investment in clean energy for the region would be just 15% of BP's profits last quarter but would do wonders for the American worker. That kind of investment could put solar panels on every roof in the Gulf region. It could create 20,000 jobs while giving a serious boost to the regional economy. This investment could kick start struggling industries such as manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and transportation.
It's also time for our government to step up. We cannot rely on BP to adequately repair the ecological and economic damage it has done (and is continuing to do) without strong federal intervention. President Obama must take responsibility for holding BP accountable, and restoring the environment and communities impacted by pledging federal oversight of BP's clean-up and containment efforts — today.
Thirty days is too long to wait for answers. And we can’t wait another thirty for progress. Let’s act beyond petroleum today.
Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is the CEO of Green For All.

The Vietnamese community of greater New Orleans makes up roughly half of the fishing industry in the area. They help to supply more than one-third of the nation’s seafood. As our country faces a potential shortage of Gulf shrimp, crab and fish, these workers face complete economic uncertainty.

Low-income communities and communities of color have the most to gain from a clean-energy future and the most to lose under the current dirty economy. Their livelihoods are prisoners of, and sadly victims to, our current energy policy. We are seeing this tragic tale unfold in neighborhoods across New Orleans.

Johnson Nguyen, a Vietnamese American who has been shrimping with his father since he was twelve years old, is watching his family’s source of income sink with each gushing gallon of oil. He and his father are considering working on clean-up efforts to make ends meet, but are worried about the training provisions and the implications of signing the British Petroleum waiver.

BP is required by law to provide subsidies. Before the explosion, the Nguyen family had an annual income of $60,000. BP is offering them and other owners of fishing boats $5,000 for loss of business. Deck hands are compensated $2,500 for their loss of income.

As the true extent of economic and environmental damages will not be known for months, signing this waiver now means freeing BP from future claims from families and workers in the community. And this includes any health and safety risks that they face helping to reclaim their shores from the oil slick that is choking it.

It has been widely reported that 40-hour hazardous materials training programs are being crammed into four hours. In some cases, training is cut even shorter because of inadequate translation services. As a result, many in New Orleans’ immigrant communities are walking around with certificates without proper training – and protection – to handle ultra-hazardous chemicals.

Our workers, our country deserve better. Not only do we demand a clean-energy economy, but we must have transparency along the way. Language barriers should not compromise the safety, security and livelihood of any community. And our value should not be defined by a company that puts profits before the health and well-being of its own employees.

Low-income communities and communities of color suffer first and worst from environmental tragedies, and this is no different in the case of the Gulf Coast Catastrophe. We are looking at BP to right their wrongs.

The Senate is delaying on climate and energy again. How can so much inaction feel so exhausting?

The most frustrating part is the feeling that our political system is hurting us more than it is helping. We have solutions. We have some really smart ideas about how to wean ourselves off dirty energy and create millions of jobs doing so. And we know what investment in clean energy can do for our communities. But the U.S. Senate appears to be taking directions from political convention and special interests rather than from the American people.

Although Capitol Hill may be deadlocked, unemployment isn't. Oil spills don't wait for the U.S. Senate to agree. The world outside of Washington, D.C., keeps going. Our leaders need to catch up.

The most vulnerable among us -- particularly low-income communities and communities of color -- are feeling the immediate impact and bearing the brunt of our leaders' inaction. We can't let the lives and dreams of the American people become casualties of a political system governed by special interests. It is critical for us to outshout, outmuscle, outsmart, and outvote those special interests. The Senate's inaction is unacceptable, and we've got to tell them so.

There is no doubt that this administration has had its hands full during its first 18 months in office, and there have been signs of progress. We are incredibly proud to have been partners in the single largest investment in clean energy in our nation's history, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The House of Representatives passed the historic American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which includes $500 million in funding for green-jobs training and would create the first-ever Green Construction Careers Demonstration Project. But it has been nearly a year since ACES passed, and these gains won't become law without the Senate on board.

The recently passed Arizona immigration law -- better described as a racial-profiling law -- is getting a lot of national attention, as it absolutely should, and shining light on the need for an immigration overhaul. I've heard the story around D.C. that immigration reform is somehow responsible for the delay on climate legislation.

This shouldn't be divisive: Both climate legislation and immigration reform are urgent, and Congress needs to get both done in 2010.

What is required now is the leadership to bring us across the finish line. That doesn't just mean getting any bill passed, but legislation that aggressively deals with the environmental and economic crises before us. It means passing a bill that protects our air and oceans, fosters unprecedented job growth in our communities, and, above all, a bill that is in the interests of the people, not of special interests.

The victories won thus far are stepping stones, but we can't get where we need to be without comprehensive climate and energy legislation. There is a very real danger that we will fail to realize the full potential of an inclusive green economy for America. The window of opportunity to act, to make significant headway against the climate crisis, and to become a player in a global green economy won't be around forever.

President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid need to start fighting for the future of our country. They need to govern like our lives, not their political careers, depend on it.

Authors: Julian Mocine-McQueen and Sean Muldoon, Green The Block
Crossposted from Global Grind.
For the next month, we’re on the road with Drake on the Campus Consciousness Tour across 17 campuses and 16 states.
Why? Because Drake is “going green,” and is partnering with Green The Block to raise consciousness about what that means.
For Drake, “going green” means lessening his tour’s negative impact on the planet, and increasing its positive impact through the message he shares with his fans.
With the help of Reverb, Drake is rollin’ in tricked out bio-diesel buses, working with the concert venues to recycle, and helping to offset the dirty energy he’s burning by investing in projects that are good for the planet (called carbon offsetting).
As the non-profit partner on the tour, Green The Block (a campaign of Green For All and the Hip Hop Caucus) is responsible for making sure that Drake’s fans are learning about how they can go green too, and help create opportunity, jobs, and health for their communities.
At every concert stop, we’re getting hundreds of fans to take the “I Will Green My Block” pledge. These are simple actions to not only curb pollution in your hood but help you save money.
On the tour, Green The Block is also teaming up with campus leaders and community organizations that are building the green economy locally.
Boston, Massachusetts, our second stop, offers a perfect example of what “going green” can mean for a community.
While in town, we teamed up with the Commonwealth Challenge and Northeastern University in Boston to help fight local pollution and poverty.
How does it work? The State of Massachusetts has a program that allows residents to get free home energy audits and free energy-saving renovations. The audits assess where a home could save energy, and the renovations make the improvements and you save money on your electricity bills. The Commonwealth Challenge is signing up home owners and renters for this program, and they are helping to create construction jobs for communities that need work.
We kicked off the day with a Green Jobs Rally, featuring a performance by New Bedford-based MC and organizer Tem Blessed. Tem knows his hip hop and his green. As a Green For All Academy fellow and leader of New Bedford’s Youth Build, Tem has been mentoring and preparing young people to be energy auditors, and leaders in the green economy for years.
After the rally, it was time to get down to business. We partnered with Youth Build members Davel and Nelson to walk the block in Dorchester. This Boston neighborhood is a mix of old Victorians and new houses. But whatever their home looked like, the response of the residents was immediately positive. As lifelong Dorchester resident Jackie Andrews told us, “It’s a free program, but they don’t let anyone know about it! I’m going to tell all my neighbors, we can all stand to save dollars.”
By the end of the day, we signed up 50 people to make real improvements to their homes, and real changes to their community!
This is what Green The Block is about: partnering with the people and programs that are changing lives by creating jobs and opportunity on a local level. And by partnering with Drake and the Campus Consciousness Tour, we can reach out to even more people who are ready to get engaged with changing their communities.
Drake is changing the music game with his sound and energy, and changing campuses and communities with his decision to go green and bring Green The Block with him.
Our journey is just beginning. And its already clear that student and community members alike are ready for Green The Block and the Campus Consciousness Tour, and ready to take their place at the front of this movement.

The recent disasters in West Virginia and the Gulf Coast make one
thing shockingly clear: the cost of dirty energy is too high for America's
workers.

In West Virginia last month, twenty nine coal miners perished from
an explosion in a coal mine, devastating a community. And in the Gulf
Coast eleven days ago, an explosion on a BP offshore oil rig killed
eleven people and is creating the biggest environmental disaster
American has seen in decades. An estimated 5,000 barrels of crude oil
continue to flow into the gulf each day. The oil slick, now
approximately the size of West Virginia, reached shore today, and is
only just beginning to wreak havoc on the region's environment,
economy, and health.

These disasters shed light on the destruction caused by our dirty energy system, and just how unsafe it is for American workers.

A shift to a clean, green economy would be a fundamental improvement
to the health and safety of planet, our communities, and our workers.
It is about building a world in which people don't have to choose
between a job and their health, in which economic opportunity sustains
our well being, rather than threatening it.

Rafael is a truck driver at the Port of LA and often works 15-17
hours each day to make the payment on the new clean truck he drivers.
Even his 5-year-old daughter Blanca knows that, “we need clean air and
the companies have to pay for it!”

In some cases, a green economy would create entirely new jobs in new
sectors, like renewable energy. But a substantial component of the
green economy is about upgrading existing jobs to make them better and
safer - both for the planet and the people working them.

For example, diesel trucking, which is concentrated around
America's major port cities, is one of the dirtiest jobs in America.
And it harms public health too; Eighty-seven million Americans live and
work near ports that violate Federal air quality standards. Asthma,
cancer, and other diseases cause by pollution have astronomical rates
in these regions.

But a campaign to clean up America's ports is not seeking to
eradicate these jobs entirely; instead it's making them clean and safe
for workers and surrounding communities. The EPA Award-winning Los
Angeles Clean Truck Program has put more than 6,000 clean diesel and
alternative energy trucks on the road and reduced diesel emissions by
80 percent since it was first enacted in 2008. The key to the success
of this program is a requirement that trucking companies, not
individual low-income truck drivers, pay for the purchase, operation
and maintenance of new, clean trucks.

The Clean and Safe Ports campaign is just one example of how the
transition to a green economy is improving worker safety and community
health.

Out of the pain of the disasters in West Virginia and the Gulf
Coast, comes a powerful lesson: we must wean ourselves off of the
inherently dangerous business of extracting fossil fuels from below the
earth surface, and spewing them into the air our children breathe.

With a clean, green economy, we don't need to sacrifice our workers' health, safety, and lives for our energy needs.

On April 22nd, 1970, twenty million Americans took action for the first Earth Day, marking the unofficial birth of the modern environmental movement.

Forty years later, Earth Day is as much about hip hop and hard hats as it is about polar bears and Ponderosas.

Over the past few years, the green movement has seen a fundamental shift with the realization of the economic opportunity provided by fighting the climate crisis. Improving the environment and transitioning to clean energy can spark a wave of jobs and opportunity for the United States, particularly for low-income communities and communities of color. This vision is becoming a concrete reality across America.

Just yesterday Vice President Biden announced the “Retrofit Ramp-Up” awards, which will help create an estimated 30,000 jobs over the next 3 years while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. By funding innovative large-scale energy-efficiency retrofits, these awards are a win for the environment and for the economy. Green For All is proud to partner with Seattle and Portland, Oregon, two winners of the Retrofit Ramp-Up awards that are ensuring that retrofit jobs are high quality and accessible to local low-income communities.

Opportunities like this in the new green economy are shifting the epicenter of the environmental movement.

That’s why today I am honoring Earth Day with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson not at a National Park or natural wonder, but in the heart of New York City. Along with renowned actor Anthony Mackie and community members, we’re digging in at The Riverside Valley Community Garden in Harlem. This neighborhood initiative is not only a source of nutritious food; it is transforming a former drug haven into a thriving, green public space.

In 2010, the green movement is in bloom in Harlem. And it is in bloom in low-income communities and communities of color across the United States, where concerns about health and excitement about green jobs are sparking a new surge of environmentalism.

This April, thousands of people who are motivated by a brighter future for their communities have taken a pledge to bring Earth Day to their blocks. They’re taking 10 simple steps for the environment and their neighborhoods, and urging our leaders in Washington to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill.

What’s remarkable is how many of these folks are not environmentalists, but Black Eyed Peas or Drake fans who went to a concert this spring, and walked away with a head full of ideas about strengthening their communities through a green economy. These musical talents are harnessing their messaging power to spread the word about the green economy, and have partnered with Green For All and Green The Block (a joint campaign with Hip Hop Caucus), to engage new audiences in the movement. As a result, we’ve touched thousands of people who otherwise would not have taken the day to focus on environmentalism.

The transformation is taking hold in Washington D.C. as well, where the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses have become some of the biggest champions of innovative green jobs bills. Most recently, Representatives Bobby Rush, Barbara Lee, and others championed the Home Star bill, which will soon be voted on by the full House of Representatives. The bill is designed to create 168,000 jobs quickly by making American homes more energy-efficient, building on the “Retrofit Ramp-up” investments. Home Star also includes strengthened job quality and access provisions, which will help to ensure that low-income people and communities of color have access to these job opportunities.

This Earth Day, let’s celebrate how the green movement has grown and expanded to be more inclusive of all of America’s communities and concerns.

We are awakening to the interconnectedness of environmental and economic issues, and the interconnectedness of all of our communities.

This awakening comes just in time to take on the challenges of today, which are even more daunting than they were 40 years ago. As much as we need innovative policy solutions and technology to transition to clean energy (and we do), what we need most desperately is the political will to fundamentally shift how we run our economy and how we treat the earth.

Only an inclusive, expansive movement for people and the planet can build this will.

Authors: Julia Rhee
Crossposted fromGlobalGrind.
In the past five weeks, I’ve been to 20 cities across America. At every stop along the way, I asked the people I met the same four questions:
Do you know someone who’s out of work right now? Do you believe that people have the right to clean air, water, and food? Do you believe in sustaining a world that will be around for our children, grandchildren, and their children?
And finally, have you heard about green jobs?
The people I informally surveyed were not your typical environmental or social justice activists. They were not economists or politicians. In fact, the only thing they all had in common was that they are fans of the multi-platinum pop group, The Black Eyed Peas.
See, I’ve been on tour with The Black Eyed Peas as an ambassador from Green For All, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.
For a self-identified racial-justice-activist-gone-green, I have to admit that this was partially an interesting social experiment for me. How much traction could environmental and social justice issues get with die-hard music fans?
The fact is, though only about 30% of people I talked to had heard of “green jobs”, most everyone had friends or family who were unemployed or underemployed, and most everyone supported access for clean air, water, and food.
While the values of the Americans I met support jobs for our communities and preserving a healthy environment, there is still work to be done in engaging people in the movement to create green jobs and a clean-energy economy.
In particular, some were skeptical that helping the planet can actually turn a profit, and many did not see the full potential a clean-energy economy could offer to low-income communities and communities of color. So we’ve got our work cut out for us. We’ve got to show how creating jobs in green industries like energy-efficiency construction, urban agriculture, and renewable energy can lift people out of poverty and improve our planetary and community health.
Fortunately, as I discovered on tour with The Black Eyed Peas, music is playing a critical role in engaging and educating more and more people.
Music hits people where they are at. It makes us feel good. It makes us think. In short, music moves people.
And now, more and more artists are using their music to move people to action. The Black Eyed Peas, Drake, U2, Dave Matthews Band, John Legend, Jack Johnson, and Sheryl Crow are just a few who have shown commitment to changing the face of environmentalism. They specialize in pushing the limits of music and eco-creativity.
Partnering with these artists gives advocates for social causes a kind of access that we often dream about—the ability to influence hard-to-reach audiences that may not normally think about going green or changing the world. On the Peas tour, we set the example at concerts with on-site recycling, petitions to pass federal and local bills that can create green jobs, water stations to discourage the use of plastic bottles, and more. Most importantly, on tour I had the chance to meet people, to hear about their families and their values, and to talk with them about solutions.
And because more and more unlikely voices, like The Black Eyed Peas and Drake, are speaking up for the environment and underserved communities, more people are stopping to listen.
My adventures on tour now come to an end, but Green For All is just getting started reaching out to new audiences with the help of committed musical artists. Julian Mocine-McQueen, my incredible
colleague at Green For All, has joined Drake on tour this spring. He’ll be promoting awareness, education, and action for a green economy on college campuses as part of the Green The Block campaign a joint initiative between Green For All and the Hip Hop Caucus.
Let’s keep the momentum going. Sign the “Earth Day on Every Block Pledge” to help green your neighborhood and enter to win 2 free tickets to see Drake in concert.
The Black Eyed Peas, Drake, and other talents can bring awareness to audiences across the world. But improving our communities, doing right by our planet, creating jobs for our families and friends – thesechanges require that we all get involved and do our part.
Let’s get it started.

Where better to launch our participation in the Campus Consciousness Tour with Drake than in the heart of Pennsylvania, State College. Home of Penn State, they call it happy valley around here, and it’s easy to see why.
The excitement on campus was palpable. After months of preparation, it felt great to step off the bus and meet the students we’ll be working with in Penn State. Kirrin Kennedy is an organizer with the League of Young Voters on Penn State campus. Once she heard about the opportunity to join Green The Block and use the momentum of the Drake tour to build a stronger movement on her campus, she jumped to action. She immediately pulled together a broad range of groups on campus: the NAACP, IDEAS (a student environmental group), and members of the student government. They joined Hip Hop Caucus president Rev. Lennox Yearwood for a panel to discuss how they can create change on the Penn State campus, and how their decisions affect State college, Pennsylvania, and ultimately the country.

“Penn State is the heart of PA, it is the literal center of the state and the leadership developed here will be leading this state for years to come,” Reverend Yearwood said at the panel. “So the decisions you make and the movement you build here decides the direction Pennsylvania will go in regards to the environment and jobs. Pennsylvania cannot and will not make the changes necessary for our environment and our people without your leadership!”

The state students are gladly taking up this strong call to action!
With the help of our student volunteers, over 400 students pledged to take action to go green on Earth Day! Not bad for an afternoon’s work. With over 40,000 students, Penn State is one of the largest colleges in the country. That students here are engaged and taking action on climate change can only mean great things for Pennsylvania, and the nation.

After a great gathering of students we headed to the massive Bryce Jordan Arena to hear Drake croon. The doors opened and the students sprinted, jumped, and ran to… The Green The Block booth!

After State College, we made a stop in Boston (which you’ll hear about in a blog coming soon), and then were back to PA for a stop at Lock Haven University (student body: 5,000).

Our volunteers for the night were typical of Lock Haven students, all of them hailed from different parts of Pennsylvania, and all of them were excited for the opportunity to talk to their peers about opportunities in the green economy. As Laura McLaughlin said, “We need green jobs in PA, we are trying to get a wind farm here, but not enough people know about it and why it’s important.” We couldn’t have asked for a better group of volunteers and they engaged the campus in a real dialogue about why they think sustainability is important.

From having people take the Earth Day on Every Block Pledge, to educating their fellow students about green energy, the Lock Haven girls took their responsibility seriously! In just over an hour they got almost 600 of their fellow students to take the Earth Day on Every Block Pledge, not bad for a school of 5,000!

We now have a couple days off in Michigan and then back too it! The first week on the tour has been an energizing whirlwind. Stay tuned here for more updates.

Authors: Julia Rhee
Crossposted from Global Grind.
If you ever meet Fergie, I’ll give you an inside tip: you don’t have to remind her that she’s much shorter than you expected. “I get that a lot,“ Fergie shrugged and smiled knowingly. At under 5’3” myself, I stood at eye level with the woman who made “lady lumps” an international sensation.
It was a night unlike any other. I was in Des Moines, Iowa, a stop on The Black Eyed Pea’s E.N.D. World Tour. I have been with the tour since February as an ambassador from the Pea’s non-profit partner, Green For All, but still hadn’t met the band. And there I was, rubbing elbows with Taboo to my left, and talking about Filipino restaurants with Apl to my right.
Beyond the excitement of finally meeting the Peas, what made the night really special was that we had gathered to focus on community empowerment and green solutions, with two distinguished public servants: Governor Chet Culver and State Representative Wayne Ford of Iowa. Governor Culver and Representative Ford honored The Black Eyed Peas, Ludacris, and Green For All for our leadership in communities of color and innovation in the field of green jobs.
Beyond the celebrity glitz and backstage access, we were a group of people connecting over our shared desire to build a better world with communities in need of some change.
Accepting the award on Green For All’s behalf was a woman named Karen Monahan. When asked who could represent the work being done in America’s heartland to create new jobs that also improve the environment, Karen was an easy pick.
Born in Iran, Karen was adopted by American parents and moved to Springfield, Missouri, as an infant. Unfortunate events in her childhood led her into the foster care system, where she bounced from shelter to shelter. A mother at the age of 16, people wrote Karen off and thought she wouldn't amount to anything. But her foster-care attorney believed in her potential and helped Karen finish college.
With no family or home to turn to, Karen says she looked inward to find her own strength. Though she "might not have had a high school prom," Karen says, "I learned to have enormous empathy, compassion, forgiveness, and love for others."
Her experience showed her what it feels like to be given up on, and to be believed in, and motivated Karen to work for social justice. She began organizing for an inclusive green economy because it offers solutions to a range of issues like poverty, racism, environmental degradation, and community health.
Karen has been leading the way to widen green economic opportunity at Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota. She’s also an alumni of the Green For All Academy, our leadership training program for community leaders across the country.
The Green For All Academy invests in local leaders, mostly from low-income communities of color, who are leading the push for quality green jobs and opportunities in America’s cities and towns. It allows people like Karen to connect with one another, learn from each other, and grow skills that can help grow a movement. In Des Moines, Karen’s role as an alumni also helped her make a connection with Representative Ford. They decided right then and there, with the Peas looking on, to strengthen the partnership between Iowa and Minnesota to create more green jobs and other pathways out of poverty.
“That’s such a big highlight for me,” Monahan commented. “I got to talk with Representative Ford, and to know that there’s interest to bridge our work between our two states is incredible. Without this ceremony, I wouldn’t have been able to make that connection.”
A long-time advocate for lifting up inner-city communities, Representative Ford has been working with Green For All to transition Iowa to a future filled with renewable and clean energy possibilities. He hopes that recognizing the trail that The Black Eyed Peas have blazed with their lyrics promoting peace and justice will allow others to learn from their example.
The state of Iowa is taking bold steps to jumpstart local economies and revitalize community development in sustainable ways. Representative Ford and Governor Culver’s leadership demonstrates that a transition to a green economy is beneficial for communities of color, particularly in hard times.
Joining forces in Des Moines with Karen, the state of Iowa, The Black Eyed Peas and Ludacris, I got to feel what the rhythm of a new economy, one that is truly green for all, could be like.
To connect to Green For All on tour with The Black Eyed Peas, visit http://blackeyedpeas.gfa.fchq.ca/ or text GREENFORALL to 41411. Once you text, you’ll get a voice mail from The Peas and the chance to win a free t-shirt.

If you ever meet Fergie, I’ll give you an inside tip: you don’t have
to remind her that she’s much shorter than you expected. “I get that a
lot,“ Fergie shrugged and smiled knowingly. At under 5’3” myself, I
stood at eye level with the woman who made “lady lumps” an
international sensation.

It was a night unlike any other. I was in Des Moines, Iowa, a stop
on The Black Eyed Pea’s E.N.D. World Tour. I have been with the tour
since February as an ambassador from the Pea’s non-profit partner, Green For All
, but still hadn’t met the band. And there I was, rubbing elbows with
Taboo to my left, and talking about Filipino restaurants with Apl to my right.

Beyond the excitement of finally meeting the Peas, what made the night really special was that we had gathered to focus on community empowerment and green solutions, with two distinguished public servants: Governor Chet Culver and State Representative Wayne Ford of Iowa. Governor Culver and Representative Ford honored The Black Eyed Peas, Ludacris, and Green For All for our leadership in communities of color and innovation in the field of green jobs.

Beyond the celebrity glitz and backstage access, we were a group of people connecting over our shared desire to build a better world with communities in need of some change.

Accepting the award on Green For All’s behalf was a woman named Karen Monahan. When asked who could represent the work being done in America’s heartland to create new jobs that also improve the environment, Karen was an easy pick.

Born in Iran, Karen was adopted by American parents and moved to Springfield, Missouri, as an infant. Unfortunate events in her childhood led her into the foster care system, where she bounced from shelter to shelter. A mother at the age of 16, people wrote Karen off and thought she wouldn't amount to anything. But her foster-care attorney believed in her potential and helped Karen finish college.

With no family or home to turn to, Karen says she looked inward to find her own strength. Though she "might not have had a high school prom," Karen says, "I learned to have enormous empathy, compassion, forgiveness, and love for others."

Her experience showed her what it feels like to be given up on, and to be believed in, and motivated Karen to work for social justice. She began organizing for an inclusive green economy because it offers solutions to a range of issues like poverty, racism, environmental degradation, and community health.

Karen has been leading the way to widen green economic opportunity at Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota. She’s also an alumni of the Green For All Academy, our leadership training program for community leaders across the country.

The Green For All Academy invests in local leaders, mostly from low-income communities of color, who are leading the push for quality green jobs and opportunities in America’s cities and towns. It allows people like Karen to connect with one another, learn from each other, and grow skills that can help grow a movement. In Des Moines, Karen’s role as an alumni also helped her make a connection with Representative Ford. They decided right then and there, with the Peas looking on, to strengthen the partnership between Iowa and Minnesota to create more green jobs and other pathways out of poverty.

“That’s such a big highlight for me,” Monahan commented. “I got to talk with Representative Ford, and to know that there’s interest to bridge our work between our two states is incredible. Without this ceremony, I wouldn’t have been able to make that connection.”

A long-time advocate for lifting up inner-city communities, Representative Ford has been working with Green For All to transition Iowa to a future filled with renewable and clean energy possibilities. He hopes that recognizing the trail that The Black Eyed Peas have blazed with their lyrics promoting peace and justice will allow others to learn from their example.

The state of Iowa is taking bold steps to jumpstart local economies and revitalize community development in sustainable ways. Representative Ford and Governor Culver’s leadership demonstrates that a transition to a green economy is beneficial for communities of color, particularly in hard times.

Joining forces in Des Moines with Karen, the state of Iowa, The Black Eyed Peas and Ludacris, I got to feel what the rhythm of a new economy, one that is truly green for all, could be like.

To connect to Green For All on tour with The Black Eyed Peas, visit http://blackeyedpeas.gfa.fchq.ca/ or text GREENFORALL to 41411. Once you text, you’ll get a voice mail from The Peas and the chance to win a free t-shirt.

Authors: Karen Monahan
Originally published on BlackEyedPeas.GreenForAll.org on Friday, March 26th.
Karen Monahan works for Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota (EJAM), and is an alumni of the Green For All Academy.
Last night I flew from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Des Moines, Iowa, where The Black Eyed Peas were playing. As a Green For All Academy Fellow, I was honored to receive a special award on behalf of Green For All from Governor Chet Culver of Iowa. Plus, I got to meet The Black Eyed Peas, who Governor Culver also awarded for their work to raise awareness about what “green” can mean for America’s communities.
“The State of Iowa is a national leader in green initiatives and we honor The Black Eyed Peas and Green For All for their ongoing commitment to raising awareness of the importance of a transition to renewable energy sources and green job creation,” Governor Culver said in a press release.
It was really great to see the younger generation, public officials, grassroots organizers, Ludicrous and the Peas all coming together around the promise of the green economy.
The most exciting part for me was forging new connections and reaching out across lines to help further my work at Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota (EJAM).
We often talk about working together and helping each other out across lines, yet we often find competition, and are in conflict with our surrounding states over federal grants, enticing people to come to our state for jobs, enticing businesses to invest in our region, etc. But yesterday was a good day for solidarity.
There has been tension between Minnesota and Iowa. See, Iowa is way ahead of Minnesota in terms of green industries, with wind energy farms and turbine manufacturing in particular. However, I learned yesterday that it also has the highest incarceration rate of African Americans.
After receiving the award, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with State Representative Wayne Ford and discuss what each of our states is working on – our strengths and weaknesses. We realized that we have a chance to help each other to make sure that both of our states have what they need to progress. We made a commitment to meet next week to discuss concrete steps we’ll take to assist each other, including perhaps setting up a conference call with other interested officials and advocates. The green economy is about lifting up the whole country, and helping those with the least prosper.
I walked away with a connection and understanding that is extremely important for building the green economy. I never thought I would be working with Iowa. This is one more example of how we can help each other, so that everyone wins. There’s enough for all of us, when we can show reciprocity.
I also want to say thank you to Green For All for helping to make another powerful connection to help bring the green economy to the next level. Go Black Eyed Peas! Go Green Economy!

The Home Star program, which could jumpstart a national revolution in residential energy efficiency, is one tiny step closer to becoming law.

The House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on Wednesday passed the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010, which could create 168,000 jobs by investing up to $6 billion in residential energy efficiency retrofits in communities across America. Democrats on the panel had to fight off several Republican attempts to weaken or delay the proposal, but Home Star now heads to the full House Energy and Commerce Committee for further consideration.

Across the country, communities are struggling under the weight of unemployment, our energy bills are getting higher, and the world is waiting for the U.S. to make real progress on addressing the climate crisis. Meanwhile, it has been frustrating to watch the debate on climate and energy legislation unfold. We are battling the entrenched special interests and the mega-powers of dirty coal and oil, and have had to wait for the U.S. Congress to take action on these crucial issues.

Improving efficiency and saving energy through building retrofit programs is the cheapest, easiest, and fastest way to cut carbon pollution and put Americans back to work. Energy efficiency is an immediate opportunity for us to begin building a clean-energy economy that addresses both our economic and energy crises.

Some cities are already leading the way and seeing the benefits. Green For All partnered with the City of Portland and other groups to create a groundbreaking initiative to conduct energy efficiency retrofits on a large scale. Clean Energy Works Portland will retrofit an estimated 100,000 homes and is already serving as a model for other programs in cities across the country. The program uses Recovery Act funds not just to stimulate short-term economic activity, but to lay the foundation for long-term economic, environmental and community health. Stimulating the energy efficiency market through Home Star would have a similar effect.

Here's how it works: Homeowners could take advantage of the program through two types of incentives. The Silver Star program offers rebates for specified energy saving measures such as insulation or windows, up to $3,000 or 50 percent of total project cost. This would be an automatic rebate at the point-of-sale, so consumers save on upfront costs. The Gold Star program includes a comprehensive energy audit and determines rebate levels based on energy savings achieved through efficiency measures, up to $8,000 or 50 percent of total project cost. Rebates would flow through contractors, once again avoiding upfront consumer cost.

As Home Star advances in Congress, there is an opportunity for community organizations to educate homeowners about the many benefits of energy efficiency retrofits. This is particularly true for low-income homeowners, who may need help financing the remaining cost of retrofits, and who can benefit from targeted outreach and education.

Home retrofits provide the opportunity for us to directly and quickly cut carbon pollution and create jobs. Together, we can all cut millions of tons of carbon emissions, immediately lower our out-of-pocket energy costs, and, at the same time, bring much-needed jobs to our communities.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Crossposted from Huffington Post and Jack and Jill Politics.
This country desperately needs to overhaul our health care system. There is no doubt about that.
But Congress is also taking on another issue that is as important to the well-being of our communities: creating jobs.
And unlike health care reform, which has been plagued by divisive
politicking, some practical, concrete solutions to unemployment can
garner support from both parties.
There are two bright spots shining through the partisan funk on Capitol Hill this week.
Tomorrow the Congressional Black Caucus is holding a forum on the
chronically unemployed. The CBC's efforts to represent the needs of the
most vulnerable communities - the poor and communities of color - are
desperately needed in the Washington debate over jobs legislation.
Unemployment for African-American workers has risen to 15.8 percent, up
from 9 percent in December 2007. Youth, women, and Latinos are also
particularly hard-hit by the economic recession. The Congressional
Black Caucus's dedication to finding solutions for the chronically
unemployed is critical to creating lasting and equitable prosperity for
America's communities.
Then on Thursday, the House is holding a hearing on Home Star. This fast-acting program will spur job growth, hiring, consumer saving on utility bills, and home improvements.
Home Star is a win, win, win for workers, consumers, and the environment.
Here's how it works. The Home Star program provides homeowners with rebates of up to
$3,000 or up to $8,000 to pay for energy-saving home improvements
(also know as "energy-efficiency retrofits"). Through these
improvements, consumers use the same amount of heating, cooling,
lighting, appliances, etc. - they just burn less energy doing it. That
means consumers save money on their energy bills as they create the
demand for workers to do the upgrades.
Home Star rebates will spark hiring in construction, a sector that
has been particularly hard hit by unemployment, as well as
manufacturing and construction retail.
All in all, Home Star is projected to create 168,000 jobs, improve
3.3 million homes, and save homeowners $9.4 billion in energy costs
over 10 years. And the energy saved through Home Star will replace the
need for 4 large, polluting power plants, making it a win for the
environment as well.
Beyond these basics, there are a couple additional reasons Home Star
makes for smart job-creation policy. The program picks up where the
Recovery Act will leave off, creating jobs for weatherization workers
as Recovery funds ramp down. And built-in incentives for contractors
will ensure that low-income workers being trained now will have jobs
when their training is complete. Also, Home Star's quality assurance
provisions promote opportunities for minority contractors.
Home Star is a promising step in the right direction. It advances
solutions to our jobs and environmental crises that make sense for
everyone.
With the Congressional Black Caucus simultaneously taking on chronic
unemployment this week, there is reason to believe Congress may soon
enact real solutions that create economic opportunity for America's
communities.

Who would of thought that one day DJ Biz Markie would spin records in front of the US Capitol building in effort to save the environment… On Wednesday February 24th, that happened. And I was there.

News cameras flashed. Any news outlet you can name was on hand, as a solid contingency of all races and ages roared in support of an environmentally friendly economy. In the foreground was the Hip-Hop Caucus‘ bus- fresh from a road trip which spanned spanned from the boot shaped state of Louisiana to the diamond shaped District of Columbia. And in the background, was the United States Capitol Building. A symbolic stance to say the least.

Many grassroots organizations pitched in to organize college students and elders, and their efforts paid off. The event created a news buzz and got a number of people talking about the concept of a green economy; a concept which is far from new.

However, It got me to thinking: how do we make this movement toward a environmentally friendly economy evident to individuals in the inner city? I asked legendary DJ Biz Markie, I asked head of Green for All Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, I asked the Hip-Hop Caucus’ Rev. Yearwood, and I also asked Congressman Carson from Indiana.

Paradiseexit.com’s Dominique DaCruz of captured a portion of the event on video; and Congressman Carson addressed my question head on. He spoke on making it transparent to people in the inner cities that this “green movement” isn’t just white people trying to save the environment, but this is the future of the American economy. We as economically marginalized citizens of the inner city- can’t afford to miss this opportunity to ride this green wave.

http://www.youtube.com/v/TuVU4TKpZ1c&hl=en_US&fs=1&

I don’t believe this information has become evident to the necessary people. However, this conference was inspiring in terms of the energy, and if this can continue to go from hood to hood, as the Hip-Hop Caucus has done with its “Green the Block” movement, maybe- just maybe those in an economic bind will begin to seek employment, skills, and ownership in the realm of a green economy.

here are some of the photographic highlights from the day complements of Zelena Williams…

And for more amazing photos from the people who organized the actual tour click HERE

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Originally published on TheRoot.com
Today the Senate Energy Committee will begin debating a weatherization bill known as Home Star that aims to make American homes more energy efficient, while creating thousands of American jobs in the process. Home Star has the potential to significantly reduce residential energy consumption, saving consumers almost $10 billion over the next ten years, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to the removal of more than 600,000 cars from American highways.
Even more importantly given the state of our economy, the legislation is projected to create 168,000 local jobs in communities all across the country. That, more than anything else, is what Americans urgently want, particularly the people who have been hardest hit by the tough economic times - poor people and people of color.
While job creation is the consensus number one national priority at the moment, global climate change threatens not only the long-term health of the planet but our economic viability as well. We believe that the solution to both these crucial problems is a clean energy economy that creates million of green jobs that do not harm the planet. Home Star moves us in the right direction. And it is exactly the kind of innovative thinking and leadership that the American people want.
That was evident this week in the results of a survey by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies which found that African Americans -- who as a group were disproportionately impacted by the recession -- said they were willing to pay more for clean energy in order to combat global warming.
During the last three weeks of November 2009, The Joint Center, a Washington think tank focused on African American issues, surveyed 500 black adults in each of four states -- Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri and South Carolina. By considerable majorities in each state [See Table 6 of Survey], they said global warming was a major or moderate problem and that they were willing to pay an extra $10 each month on their electric bill if it would help fight global warming.
All we need now is leadership. Home Star is a small but significant step in the right direction.
Washington these days is spending a lot of time obsessing over its own gridlock, with each party blaming the other for the lack of action on issues critical to the American people. The completely broken process on health care reform stands as the prime example.
Outside of Washington however, the only concern is the ragged state of the job market and what is being done to fix it. Congress needs to pass a comprehensive jobs bill in order to further stimulate the economy, and that bill needs to include provisions that direct both investments and hiring to the people and communities where they are most needed. As we continue to debate the size and shape of such a jobs bill, Home Star is a good first step that can quickly generate jobs, many of them in low-income neighborhoods, and boost appliance sales.
Home Star, and the larger question of job creation, gives Washington a chance to break out of the current cycle of gridlock, recrimination and failure and do something for the American people at a time when we urgently need the government to be aggressively working on our most urgent interests.
Home Star will help three million American families retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient, and will save those consumers as much as $9.5 billion over ten years. The program dedicates $200 million to provide access to low-interest financing for homeowners to weatherize their homes or buy new, more energy efficient appliances.
In addition, the majority of the goods used for home weatherization are made in the U.S., and as a result the program will also boost domestic production in the building materials manufacturing sector. This sector is operating at less than 60 percent of capacity today, with an unemployment rate of almost 25 percent.
The country needs the economic jolt that Home Star can provide and Congress needs to rise to the occasion and pass it as soon as possible. If it gets to the President's desk he is sure to sign it. Last week in Georgia he laid out the stakes around Home Star: "We know it will make our economy less dependent on fossil fuels, helping to protect the planet for future generations," he said. "But I want to emphasize that Home Star will also create business and spur hiring up and down the economy."
We are for that.

As part of the Roosevelt Institute's weeklong "Lessons from Black History" series, I was asked to reflect on what lessons from the past should be heeded to advance social justice in the future. Here's my take.

There have been a few reminders lately that there are some advantages to being on the outside fighting the good fight, rather than being on the inside having won.

Fifty-five years on, we cannot lose sight of the sense of rebellion embodied in a single person's choice of where to sit. Sitting in one seat, instead of another ten feet away, meant confronting a blind, irrational, rage that put Rosa Parks' life at risk in 1955. Her refusal to sit where she was expected to laid bare the lunacy and instability of a society so strictly ordered along racial lines. Her simple act of defiance shook the foundations of that society and quickened its demise. A simple personal decision became a revolutionary act of historic proportions.

In the time since, we're grown used to a more comfortable life in the United States. African Americans are now tightly woven into the fabric of the nation. Even in Montgomery, even in Cicero, we've achieved the means, at least politically, to address our concerns from within the system -- often, it seems, preferring negotiation to activism.

Since January 20, 2009, we've seen the limits of that strategy. President Obama, who rode to victory in 2008 on an unparalleled wave of voter activism, saw that wave crest and dissipate. He was left to fight alone on issues that are nearly as baneful today as segregation was in our parents' time: climate change, and an unfair economy leaving millions without work and their children hungry and without medical care.

Could it be that President Obama's supporters drew the wrong
conclusions from his victory? Did they assume that with him in office these problems would be quickly addressed without strife, without a voice raised?

We must be those dedicated individuals. We must take bold action, and call out the hypocrisies of those who oppose righteous change. As we advocate for green jobs and other progressive causes, we must be willing to take an action that is uncomfortable to us and to others. We must responsibly call attention to injustice whenever and wherever we find it. We can't be frightened by the words or actions of those fighting for
their own interests and the status quo.

Justice isn't won with broad strokes or grand gestures. It comes incrementally, by the tiny ripples of hope of which Robert Kennedy spoke -- small actions that any of us can take in the daily fight for justice.

The tiny ripples and simple acts of our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles created a society much better than the one they inherited. It is incumbent on us to do the same -- no matter how challenging or uncomfortable the task may be.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Crossposted on Jack and Jill Politics, Huffington Post, Grist, and Treehugger.com.
America is struggling.
Families strive to make ends meet while facing an uncertain economic
future. The deterioration of our environment – rather than slowing –
continues to gain speed. At a moment when we need every opportunity
possible, climate change threatens the lives and livelihoods of
vulnerable people at home and around the world.
We are all impacted by these hard times, but it is the historically
disadvantaged – people of color and low-income communities – who find
themselves at the point of the spear.
This challenge is the Civil Rights Movement’s unfinished business.

Markese Bryant, aka Doo Dat, raps about the legacy of Dr. King,
President Obama, and how a growing movement is creating opportunities
for communities of color through the green economy. Watch “The Dream
Reborn (My President is Green).”
As we seek solutions and look
for strength, it is fitting to turn to Dr. King and the movement he
represented, a struggle for equality and justice.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s shifted the hearts, minds,
and laws of our nation. The solutions to today’s challenge must be no
less sweeping, and our movement no less powerful, righteous, or
relentless.
For all of his strength and grace, Dr. King was also the face of a
movement of tens of thousands of people who struggled daily for a
better existence. Their work was not glamorous; their courage didn’t
make the evening news. But these ordinary people, their ordinary
battles, are what comprised the Civil Rights Movement – and what
changed our nation.
We are not without heroes today, heroes whose leadership is often as
moving as Dr. King’s. President Obama is an inspiration to a
grassroots movement – people who do what they can to improve their
communities and to help America live up to its promise. But as we
honor President Obama for his leadership as we look towards the
anniversary of his inauguration, we must look beyond the hero to the
energy and solutions that power his inspiration.
Today, I want to tell you about another, less-acclaimed leader:
Markese Bryant. Markese was born and raised in East Oakland. At the
age of six, he lost his mother to the streets and his father to the
prison system. Markese nearly met the same fate after being caught
selling crack cocaine – but, given the opportunity, he enrolled in
community college. There, he was inspired – learning from the Civil
Rights Movement to build, not destroy. He learned the role he could
play in his community.
Markese’s inspiration turned into action upon discovering the
movement for a new, green economy. He learned about those bringing
good jobs in the clean-energy economy to communities thirsting for
opportunity. He read about solar power, urban gardening, and about
energy-efficiency retrofits. He learned that these practical, almost
mundane innovations have all of the glamour of riding the bus – but
that these simple actions, like those of Rosa Parks, can shake the core
of our society.
Markese is now organizing his campus and his community as a Green
For All College Ambassador, talking about the opportunities presented
by an inclusive green economy and, in doing so, helping to build a
movement.
Markese, also a rapper, tells his story through his music. Today, he is releasing a video,
in partnership with Green For All, that tells much better than I can
the story of the people-powered movement for green-collar jobs – and
how it builds on the legacy of Dr. King and the inspiration of
President Obama.
Dr. King’s legacy is thriving, as evidenced by Markese’s creativity.
Yes, the solutions to our problems look a little different now. Dr.
King did not know green-collar jobs or the clean-energy economy. But
the principles of equality, justice and opportunity remain the same.
This movement – the movement started by Dr. King, reignited by
President Obama and exemplified by Markese – is strong, and growing.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Cross-posted from Black Enterprise:
As international climate talks conclude in Copenhagen, it is clear that we are on the verge of a historic moment. Today, 130 heads of state seek to reach an agreement on clear steps forward to solve the climate crisis. The significance of this moment cannot be overstated, especially for historically disadvantaged communities.
The effects of climate change threaten all nations and peoples. But it is developing countries and impoverished communities who suffer the most. From heat-related deaths to floods and famine, poor people and people of color are the first to be devastated when climate disaster strikes. This is true whether it be New Orleans or Namibia.
Just yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a plan to mobilize $100 billion in financing to help developing nations and countries most vulnerable to climate change adapt and invest in clean energy. This financing is a bold step in the right direction, and will provide essential resources to countries and people in dire need. It far surpasses previous U.S. commitments in funding and brought new energy to Copenhagen, raising some hope that an agreement may emerge later today.
This financing has the potential to save lives and transform communities. Yet, like the House of Representative's climate and energy bill, an international investment to combat the effects of global warming must include policies that ensure the inclusion of and access for the most vulnerable to the benefits of a green economy.
Green For All worked with a coalition of civil rights, labor, faith and environmental groups to ensure the inclusion of these essential provisions in the House legislation. The leadership role taken on by advocates for people of color and the working poor had never before been seen on this scale for this issue. This support shifted the terms of the debate.
I hope to see that replicated today.
The equity provisions in the House bill may not directly translate to an international agreement. But their spirit must be maintained. Climate policy – whether at home or abroad – must ensure survival for communities that too often languish at the margins of prosperity.
We’re gaining strength. We're forging partnerships. And we're building a growing consensus that low-income communities and communities of color – whether West African or African American – must have a fair stake in a new, clean-energy economy.
Follow Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All, on Twitter.Black Enterprise is a leading business magazine for African-Americans focused on wealth creation and financial empowerment.

"The disaster is already in progress, but we have it in our power to end this injustice."

-- Desmond Tutu, COP15

I am writing from Copenhagen. It is 3a.m. and I am filled with incredibly conflicting emotions.

I am surrounded by those who face the consequences of global warming every day – families who watched their homes disappear in flood waters, farmers who can no longer harvest their crops because of drought, and those who have lived peacefully but are facing strife as they watch their homeland’s natural resources deplete rapidly.

A debate about the existence of global warming denies the human experience and hardship of millions of people around the world.

However, I carry with me a great hope and faith. Last year, the United States came together. We stood defiant in our affirmation of our commitment to one another. We recognized our desperate need to be one country whose values and purpose would withstand the test of time.

Yet, we are at a crossroads. Barack Obama was elected with the promise of a clean-energy economy that would restore our economic power and affirm our place as part of a global community. He left no doubt that global warming was real and was a threat to our existence. People of faith joined with young and old, rich and poor. We stood together because we loved our country and we wanted it to be better. We heard a call to our highest selves.

Now, that feeling has faded for so many. The political reality of our current system has given way to disillusionment, and in moments like this, despair.

This moment calls us back into action. The election is not the end of the mission. Change can only be measured by the translation of values and promise into action. Hope is not enough. It must become change.

We are being called into service. The United States must take bold leadership in Copenhagen. We act not just for the mother who spoke from Africa, but for those in Oakland and Coal River Mountain who want to see their children thrive and have opportunity in their communities.

Desmond Tutu’s words in Copenhagen reminded us that we have an ability to stop the injustice.

We must stand strong in our values and commitment to one another. Change is not easy and cannot be measured only by election cycles.

We need to match rhetoric to results. And I hope to see it here, now, in Copenhagen.

Yes! Magazine is a non-profit magazine concerned with building a more just, sustainable, and compassionate
future with articles about economic alternatives and peace options.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Cross-posted from BlackEnterprise.com:
I am boarding a plane to Copenhagen, heading to the United Nations Climate Change Conference that has captivated the world’s attention.
As I packed my bags for the Danish winter, my thoughts fixated on how we bridge the gap between the priorities of the Copenhagen negotiations and the very real perils facing the world’s most vulnerable populations.
I do this work for reasons that are very personal. I do it so that sometime soon, parents in my hometown won't have to choose between oil refinery jobs and the health of their families. I do it because I have watched fishermen in South Africa face incredible obstacles, including food shortages, because of climate change. I do it because I want to see more people of color play a critical role in creating opportunity in green industry as business owners. I do it because I understand that it is our families who pay the consequences of global warming in a boom and bust economy.
I do it because I know the same solution to our climate crisis can be the solution to poverty.
I am going to Copenhagen to join with incredible leaders from across the globe to create a future that will provide opportunity for all of us.
Across the world, especially in developing nations, poor people and people of color are getting hit first and worst by climate change – from droughts and floods, food and water shortages, the destruction of homes and entire communities, to island nations threatened by rising sea levels. We need to find a solution that lifts up the most vulnerable, regardless of international boundaries.
Though local and nationwide action is absolutely critical, global warming is a global problem. We need to come together to find a global solution. No person, city, or nation alone can end this crisis. And the welfare of any individual, community, or population cannot be overlooked in seeking a solution.
Later this week, heads of states from across the world -- including President Barack Obama -- will arrive to close out the final days of the U.N. summit, and try to come to an agreement on how the international community will handle the climate crisis. But Copenhagen is about so much more than the success of a deal that may be reached. It is more than a specific emissions reduction number that is ultimately agreed upon. It is a call to action. It is a call for leadership.
This is a defining moment for our country. Will we deliver the promise of the American Dream? Or just the rhetoric? Are we ready to make sure that children from Detroit to Johannesburg are given an opportunity to succeed in the clean-energy economy?
We are seeing issues of equity and justice play out in Copenhagen. Last weekend, 100,000 people rallied for a climate deal that addresses the role that each nation has played in the pollution of our planet. Yesterday, developing countries walked out of the negotiations as a tactic to push wealthy nations to act in support of balanced discussions.
In Copenhagen, our real opportunity is to organize and build power, to make connections with new allies across the world, and to learn and share our experiences, solutions, hardships, and sources of strength. As much as the U.N. deal in Copenhagen matters, how we act in the weeks and months that follow is equally important. We need to strengthen this global movement so that we are all more prepared to collectively push for stronger, better, and truer solutions to poverty and climate change.
Follow Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins on Twitter.Black Enterprise is a leading business magazine for African-Americans focused on wealth creation and financial empowerment.

As world leaders from more than 190 countries meet in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to discuss ways to combat climate change and global warming, here in the U.S., President Barack Obama has championed the green revolution and energy policies as a means to get Americans working again and jumpstart the economy.

The principal cause of climate change is burning fossil fuels -- coal, oil and gas, and Obama has made numerous clean energy investments in the stimulus package. The White House has also pledged to cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 to about 17% below 2005 levels and about 83% by 2050.

In addition to his efforts in the U.S., Obama has engaged world leaders on the issue of climate change, and plans to address the conference on Dec. 18. The U.S. has sent over a delegation to Copenhagen that includes Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.

African American communities are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. One only needs to look at the devastating aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav for recent examples. Those vulnerabilities also stem from the lack of economic and institutional resources to avoid global warming’s worst effects, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which sent a delegation to Copenhagen.

BlackEnterprise.com spoke with Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green for All, and Gina E. Wood, the director of policy and planning at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies -- both attending the conference-- about the summit, getting blacks more involved in a green energy economy, and shaping the climate change discussion.

BlackEnterprise.com: What’s your role -- and Green For All’s -- at the conference in Copenhagen?

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins: I will be acting as a delegate to the U.N. When we get to Copenhagen, our job will be threefold. The first is to participate in the activities. The second is really to bring the issues and concerns of communities of color and low-income communities to Copenhagen and then be able to translate those issues back to communities here. Last but not least is really to integrate those issues into the larger environmental and economic movement and to be able to make the case that some of the issues that are important to us such as food and land that are not currently part of the discussions should be part of the discussion in the future.

BlackEnterprise.com: Why is the conference important?

Gina E. Wood: All countries are vulnerable to climate change, but the poorest countries and poorest people within them are most vulnerable. In this decade alone, over 3 billion people in developing countries could be affected by climate-related disasters. People in developing countries are affected at 20 times the rate of those in developed countries. Leaders from around the world will gather in Copenhagen to craft a fair, ambitious, and binding international agreement to solve climate change.

BlackEnterprise.com: With large conferences such as COP-15, I am always skeptical about results. How will the scores of leaders reach a consensus on a framework agreement on global warming?

Ellis-Lamkins: I think that Copenhagen is a stage. It is not the place that it will happen. So, for us, the first thing that’s important is just that people across the globe realize that there are people in the United States who understand that we share issues. It’s just the ability to say that while all of our communities may not call it global warming, we understand Katrina, we understand lack of resources, we understand the need to reuse things, and we understand that we’re at a moment of crisis.

BlackEnterprise.com: What are some of the things that the average African American household can do to help combat climate change?

Ellis-Lamkins: There are two things that they can do. One is we have an ability to be able to change our own consumption. If we could just follow the lessons that our grandmothers had taught us, we wouldn’t have to do anything more, right? If we could walk when we didn’t need to drive. If we could reuse things that could be reused. There are some basic things we could do just in our own changes in consumption. But perhaps the thing that is as not if much more critical is our ability to advocate for change in our communities.

I think the part that’s been missing is that it isn’t that African Americans haven’t been environmentalists, we didn’t call our self that. But I just think our grandparents and parents didn’t belong to necessarily the Sierra Club. But what they did is they taught us about the value of reusing … just the ability to understand that everything had a purpose and that you didn’t have to throw things away.

BlackEnterprise.com: Do you think minority communities have been excluded from the green debate?

Ellis-Lamkins: I think we could be included more. When you’re asking to sit at someone else’s table, they get to decide where you sit. The question for us is really to find the table that we sit at.

Wood: My first reaction is yes, to a large extent. I think we have been excluded, but I think we’re now beginning to be engaged. In the past, historically, yes we’ve been excluded. But I think now there’s a real conscious effort to include people of color in these discussions.

BlackEnterprise.com: How do different organizations or individuals go about doing that? To not wait for someone to say, ‘Oh, here you go. Now you get to be part of the discussion and you get to part of the solution instead of being on the sidelines.’ How does that happen?

Ellis-Lamkins: My hope is that as organizations begin to see change happen through partnership in this arena that that’s what will inspire people to do more.

Wood: You know, individually there are several things that people can do just in terms of their home and personal lifestyles. Then, beyond that, I mean getting involved in their community. I mean doing a lot of community organizing and community mobilization.

The National Urban League recently held a green jobs summit, and last week the White House hosted a jobs summit. What concrete plans do you see emerging that would present more green job options for African Americans?

Ellis-Lamkins: We have to realize is that green jobs aren’t naturally good jobs, and they don’t create opportunity on their own. So, what we have to do is first to be able to advocate for where investment is made first, right? When the government is going to invest $5 billion in weatherizing public housing, where are the places we want to see that investment? How do we make sure that people that live in those communities work on those projects, is one piece.

Wood: I think part of the challenge now is that there’s so many different definitions that people are using with regard to green jobs that it’s almost impossible to generate a reliable count in terms of how many green jobs there really are in America today. Some of the things that we’ve been able to identify are that they pay more by 10%-20%; really depending on the definition of the job.

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins will be blogging for BlackEnterprise.com from Copenhagen Tuesday and Friday.

To the iconic image of a polar bear struggling onto a crumbling ice floe, or that of a condor chick peering from its man-made nest, we must add another image: that of an American worker at his trade. Endangered species are a concern to all environmentalists, and the plight of the worker should be no different.

This is not hyperbole. The unemployment rate continues to climb, surging into double digits with no discernible impact on its speed. At 10.2 percent, the official unemployment rate is at its highest point in more than a quarter of a century. And a broader look – one that includes discouraged workers and part-time workers seeking full-time positions – puts unemployment and underemployment at 17.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the bedrock of our nation’s employment, manufacturing, moves in the opposite direction. The stock image of a manufacturing worker is no longer that of a blue collar in Skokie; it is of an assembly line in Tianjin. Chinese unemployment is under 5 percent. Its manufacturing is growing at its fastest rate in five years, and is leading Asia out of this global recession.

American workers, and by extension, American families, are in a fight for survival - one that requires as much of us as does the fight to protect any endangered species. What is needed is for government, business, and concerned citizens to work together to ensure that a critical part of the ecosystem is saved.

We must build new economic sectors that replace the stability once provided by manufacturing. No sectors offer as much promise as do those of green manufacturing and renewable energy.

Where once we focused on a global arms race, we must now recognize that we are in a race for energy independence, as other countries strive to build this sector - at our expense. But energy independence offers value beyond the geopolitical. It offers the prospect of long-term, quality employment. “Green Prosperity,” a report from Green For All, the Political Economy Research Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council, shows that clean-energy investment creates roughly three to four times as many jobs as the same level of investment in fossil fuel industries. The report estimates that investing $150 billion in clean energy — both public and private investment — will create a net gain of 1.7 million jobs.

We must build industries that do what the strongest industries of the last century did: provide a way for every person to ascend into the middle class, offering a better life for their children than they had growing up. We must build industries that nurture the primary engine of employment and economic production: small businesses. We need to build industries to be strong now, but that last far into the future. We need to avoid the self-destructive mistakes of the past by incorporating environmental stewardship and restoration into the foundation of these industries.

No industries meet these concerns as completely as those of green manufacturing and renewable energy. And they go a step further. These industries necessitate domestic production. We cannot continue as an import economy predicated on the idea that other countries can be producers while we simply remain consumers. Driving innovation in these two sectors will assure that we’re engaged in the global economy in a way that benefits the country and our families.

There is an opportunity at hand to begin this transition: the President’s Job Summit. This summit must be a key moment in saving the American worker from extinction – a chance for the country to commit to new public and private investment. It’s an opportunity for the government to do what it does best: give the private sector and individual Americans the tools and support they need for this transition to succeed.

The Summit should emphasize new investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Such an investment means jobs. Manufacturing, installing and maintaining renewable energy sources using clean, sustainable methods requires more work (and workers) than extracting energy sources from the earth and burning them. In the same way, making a building more energy efficient requires exponentially more work (and workers) than letting it waste energy. Including innovative financing tools and supporting the creation of secondary markets will create a capital pool that multiplies the impacts and is robust enough to achieve large-scale, energy-efficiency outcomes.

We must go further than just creating jobs. By including quality and access standards, we can ensure that these jobs meet the goal of replacing quality employment with quality employment. By including green workforce development resources, we ensure that workers are prepared to excel in the jobs of tomorrow. By educating Americans about energy-efficiency services that will protect their employment opportunities and pocketbooks, we can add demand for services, increasing the marketplace. Few will disagree that such an increase is needed.

We must all ─ environmentalists, elected officials, business leaders ─ come to the aid of an endangered species that shares our natural habitat. This moment is one in which we’ll define the future of America’s role within the global economy, as well as the shape of our culture. Acting together, acting responsibly and acting immediately, we can assure that the American worker and American families are able to thrive un-endangered for the entire 21st century.

With unemployment near 10 percent and the economy struggling to recover, how do you convince Americans to get involved in solving the climate crisis? Give them an opportunity to create a new, green economy, says Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, leader of the Oakland-based nonprofit Green for All. Green For All organizes minority and low-income communities to press for green jobs and mobilizes their grassroots power into a national force for an inclusive, clean-energy economy. This year, the group has had several big wins, helping to secure federal funds in the stimulus bill for green jobs training and other programs that offer a pathway out of poverty.

When you go into inner-city communities where unemployment numbers are well into the double-digits, how do you even begin talking about climate change?

The message we take to those communities is that the economic crisis on Main Street can actually be solved at the same time as we combat global warming.I don’t think there’s anything more important than talking to people about jobs. Changing to a clean-energy economy offers so much opportunity for people who are struggling, and for their families.

What do you hope will happen when people hear your message?

Our goal is to make this movement real for people. On Main Street, people have to see that their lives can improve through a green economy. There is no more critical place to do that than in communities like Detroit, Atlanta, and Oakland, where people have been hit hardest by the old economy.

We want to empower people to make their world better—make the environment healthier but also create economic opportunities. At an event Green For All held in Portland recently, we talked about how homes are weatherized and how we can change patterns of consumption. I heard a woman say, “This was the first time I got to be part of the conversation about our economy.”

I met a man in Newark. Most of his friends were in prison, but he graduated from high school and went through a green jobs training program. It took him a while, but he finally got a job. There’s no more courageous human being than someone who says, “I’m making a choice because it’s the right choice.” What we have to do is lift those people up and make sure there’s opportunity.

How is this vision for a green economy inspiring new voices to speak out on climate change?

Organizations are coming together to advocate for employment opportunities for people in the communities where they live, like funding for the Green Jobs Act. The Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the NAACP, and the Coalition on Civil Rights were crucial to getting green job programs included in legislation this year.

We’ve joined with the Hip Hop Caucus, the NAACP, and other organizations that have not always been traditional players in the environmental movement, and created Green the Block, which gets people involved in environmental projects in their own communities. That program’s successes have shown us, in a short period of time, that when you mobilize communities of color and low-income communities, they really can make change in the environmental movement and also address the issues that are most critical to saving the planet.

On September 11 this year, we organized our first national day of service in remembrance of those who lost their lives eight years ago. We held Green the Block events—from organic farming to cleaning up neighborhoods—in cities across the country, and we saw that there is already an unstoppable movement. We’re just fortunate to be part of it. The environmental movement can’t win alone, and if we actually allow people to take leadership, they’re willing, ready, and eager.

How does your grassroots organizing influence your national policy work?

When we see what people are doing in these communities, with no support, we realize we have to take the boldness and fierceness that exists at a local level and translate that into national policy. We have to show policymakers that there are communities ready to turn the green economy into a reality.

YES! Magazine is an
award-winning, nonprofit publication that supports people’s
active engagement in building a just and sustainable world.

In the wake of the highest unemployment rate in 25 years, the Roosevelt Institute asked historians, economists and other public thinkers to reflect on the lessons of the New Deal and explore new, big ideas for how to get America back to work. Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins argues for clean energy investments that will create 1.7 million jobs for the people who need them the most.

It's difficult for most Americans to accept data indicating an end to the recession for a simple reason -- they don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Despite a quarter of growth, the unemployment rate has topped 10%, the highest it has been since 1983. Among people of color, the rates are even higher, with Latino unemployment exceeding 13%, and unemployment in the African-American community just shy of 16%. Economic growth does not mean that Americans experience economic relief; without stable jobs for everyday Americans, this cannot be considered a recovery. Recovery necessitates that jobs be created -- jobs that provide stable employment for years, not months.

Green shoots of an employment recovery are showing through the investments made under President Obama's Recovery Act, which is already producing impressive innovation and the beginnings of job and wealth creation in green industries. Clean-energy sectors, which hold the promise of being major engines of job growth, are creating opportunities for those communities hit hardest by the recession: low-income communities and communities of color.

Portland, Oregon, for example, is using Recovery Act investments to launch a revolving loan fund that will help residents pay for energy-efficiency improvements to their homes. This program will save energy, save money and create 10,000 local jobs. A groundbreaking Community Workforce Agreement will further ensure that those jobs are available to workers from low-income and other disadvantaged communities.

In New York City, Recovery Act investments are helping the Community Environmental Center (CEC) hire more workers and weatherize more buildings. The largest Weatherization Assistance Program provider in the state, CEC is a union shop providing good wages and benefits. And thanks to a partnership between the union (the Laborers Local 10) and Non-Traditional Employment for Women, women and historically disadvantaged workers have the opportunity to win those jobs.

These local examples reinforce what larger, national investigations have shown. In our report Green Prosperity, Green For All, the Political Economy Research Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council showed that clean-energy investment creates roughly three to four times as many jobs as comparable investment in fossil fuel industries. The report estimates that investing $150 billion (public and private) in clean energy will create a net gain of 1.7 million jobs. Renewable energy and energy efficiency replace the damage done to our environment by fossil fuels with good, sustainable jobs for American workers. Building a green economy involves more than a shift to clean energy -- it will provide a shift to a more skilled and labor-intensive economy.

The Recovery Act is promising -- but it is only a beginning. Congress and the president must take the next step: enacting strong climate and energy legislation. The Clean Energy Jobs Act, just
reported out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, will invest public money in clean energy. But moreover, it will also encourage private investment and innovation by sending a clear message: clean energy is the future of our economy. Those who invest early and robustly will be reap the benefits.

There are ways, though, that the Clean Energy Jobs Act can be made even stronger. We must to increase clean-energy investments while fully protecting low-income consumers from price hikes. We must protect two key provisions: the Green Construction Careers Demonstration Project and funding for the Green Jobs Act. These provisions ensure that the bill not only creates jobs, but that all of America's workers have access to and are ready for these jobs - particularly the workers impacted most severely by the economy'sdownturn.

An economic recovery, after all, is not a percentage point noted in a press release. A real recovery is one in which Americans can be confident that, regardless of where they live or what they look like, they have an opportunity to succeed in the economy. We must measure our true progress by a different metric: the number of career-track, green jobs that we create for those Americans who need them most.

Authors: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Cross-posted from the Huffington Post and Grist:
Today, Green For All and Living Cities unveiled the Energy Efficiency Opportunity Fund alongside President Clinton, at the closing session of Clinton Global Initiative's Annual Meeting.
The groundbreaking fund will finance innovative efforts that create jobs and cut energy costs for low-income families through energy-efficiency building retrofits.
I am proud to say that in addition to advocating for public policies that invest in the clean energy economy, Green For All is now mobilizing private capital to directly create jobs and fight global warming.
By investing in new models for financing retrofits, the Fund will help catalyze and leverage additional funding from federal, state and local governments, financial institutions and foundations.
The Fund creates a unique platform for "triple bottom line" returns, including:

Profit for investors: A financial return of 2 - 3 percent annually;

Cuts in global warming pollution: An environmental return in the form of reduced energy consumption and avoided greenhouse gas emissions; and

Jobs and opportunity for Americans: A social return that saves money and creates jobs for low-income people.

We estimate that when fully deployed, a $20 million fund would leverage approximately $200 million in financing for building energy retrofits. On an annual basis, this would mean:

37,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided - the equivalent of more than 4,700 cars taken off the road;

25% energy savings on average in 15,000 homes, with total household savings of $6 million;

25% energy savings on average in 2,000 commercial/community buildings;

The Energy Efficiency Opportunity Fund is an extension of Green For All's commitment to build a clean-energy economy that is ripe with broad opportunity and shared prosperity for every neighborhood.
In particular, we have been engaging the business community through our Capital Access Program. Through CAP, we coach emerging clean energy businesses, provide resources for the business community, and now, invest directly in the clean-energy economy. You can learn more and get involved with CAP here.
Building a better economy for America requires working hand in hand with diverse and unlikely partners: from elected officials to unemployed workers, from businesses to community organizers. Everyone has a role to play in crafting a clean energy future.
We are so proud to be able to work with businesses and investors to directly create jobs and wealth through clean energy.
Economic opportunity and environmental renewal are now converging through smart investments in people, place and planet.

Authors: yvonne
Crossposted from Green the Block.
On September 11, 2009 just over one-hundred Green the Block service events happened in 24 states.
Green the Block partners joined together with their neighbors in various activities, including: community clean-ups in Brooklyn; green retrofitting of a 90-year-old community center in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and elementary students delivering cards made from recycled materials to the troops at Walter Reed U.S. Army Medical Center. The Green the Block events were in association with President Obama's United We Serve initiative for a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Green For All CEO, and Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., Hip hop Caucus President and CEO, co-authored "This 9/11, Urban
Communities Remember and Serve," discussing the power and inspiration that this day represented. See some of the stories below, and check out more at the Green the Block blog.
Nappy Roots and Gov Beshear come together to Green the Block in KY
You know there is something different going on when in the great state of Kentucky, Gov Steve Beshear and the Nappy Roots are out together in Bowling Green on September 11 to remember and honor the victims of the 2001 attacks, and to look to acts of community service
that promote Green Jobs as the imperative for a better future for this country.
Green the Block in Washington DC
Green the Block took shape in a few different ways in Washington, DC on 9/11. Early in the morning elementary students delivered cards for our injured troops at Walter Reed. Over at Ballou Senior High, seniors participated in a day-long educational and planning session to develop green projects to carry out and complete this semester. Later in the afternoon the National Wildlife Foundation worked with students at Martin Luther King Jr Elementary School to plant an urban garden.
Greening the Block, Oakland Style
In commemoration of 9-11, and in honor of First Lady Michelle Obama's "United We Serve" national day of service, Art in Action's
CommuniTree Project organized a garden planting day behind our new green youth media center on Telegraph Ave. in Oakland, CA. The action
was coordinated with hundreds of others in concert with the launch of "Green the Block," a new program of Green For All and the Hip Hop
Caucus.

This September 11th, communities are honoring those who lost their lives eight years ago by participating in service activities. Churches, schools, and community groups are holding nearly one-hundred Green the Block service events in more than 24 states.

All across the nation, people are choosing to act on encouragement instead of discouragement, on hope instead of despair.

Both of us are often asked to speak for those who have no voice, and to remind others of those who are often forgotten. We are asked to respond to the frustrations of our communities and fulfill the aspirations of those who are seeking better lives. Yet we are constantly humbled by those who we strive to serve.

To see people from all walks of life take up service as a way to remember the tragedy of 9/11 is beauty from ashes. It is also part of the solution that will put our nation on the road to recovery, permanently.

We just read about a handful of the events that are going on today, and imagine if everyday this was happening in every city all over the country...

In Brooklyn, one-hundred high school students are helping to green their community through urban gardening.

In Florida, local cooks are preparing an organic meal for their firefighters, to show gratitude and educate their community about healthy eating.

In Chicago, volunteers are cleaning and greening two community homeless shelters.

In Washington, D.C., elementary school students are delivering cards made from recycled materials to the troops at Walter Reed U.S. Army Medical Center.

In Atlanta, hundreds of light-bulbs will be exchanged for energy efficient ones.

In Chattanooga, Tennessee a ninety-year-old community center will get a green retrofit.

In Bakersfield, California local leaders will provide at-risk young men with jobs training.

After today's nearly one-hundred Green the Block events are completed, we will continue to promote building stronger communities through service and the Green the Block campaign.

Join us today and everyday hereafter in working for peace and prosperity for everyone, because it is in the daily struggle for a brighter future that we truly remember and honor those who died on 9/11.

This week revealed some of the best and worst moments in the role of people of color in the struggle over our nation’s energy and economic future.

First, fraudulent attempts by coal lobbyists to defeat clean energy legislation, by faking support from communities of color, were uncovered.

Then, just yesterday, Green For All,
the Hip Hop Caucus, and the Obama Administration announced a new campaign centered around bringing clean energy economy to communities of color: Green the Block.

The contrast between these two efforts illustrates the difference between deceptively using and genuinely engaging communities of color.

The Coal Lobbying Forgery
It started when Congressman Tom Periello’s (D-VA) staff was surprised to see identical letters from local Latino and African American organizations in opposition to the House of Representatives’ clean energy bill (officially called the American Clean Energy and Security Act, or ACES). So, they called the groups (the local NAACP chapter and Creciendo Juntos), only to find the letters were fakes sent by lobbyists for the coal industry.

Photo from Thinkprogress.org

Investigations over the last week have revealed that the lobbying firm Bonner & Associates sent a dozen forged letters to Congress, urging Representatives to oppose ACES. Bonner was subcontracted by another lobbying firm, the Hawthorne group, which was hired by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity group, a coal industry group.

Considering that ACES only passed with a vote of 219-212, this foul play threatened to effectively destroy the
push for federal clean energy legislation – legislation that could create millions of jobs, revitalize U.S. manufacturing, and transition America to a clean-energy economy.

Perhaps the coal lobbyists thought they could get away with their forgery because of the misguided assumption
that communities of color are generally disengaged from politics, and from issues related to the environment and climate change specifically.

In fact, the opposite is true. People of color and groups that work with them are, now more than ever, taking a leadership role in the push for clean energy and bold climate policy.

Green For All, the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and a number of
other civil rights groups with deep roots in communities of color were instrumental in strengthening the bill with more access to jobs and economic opportunity for low-income communities. Once these provisions made it into the bill, these groups successfully pushed to help pass
ACES.

And these organizations continue to lead now, as the Senate crafts its version of climate and energy legislation. The Climate Equity Alliance, a coalition of civil rights and economic justice groups including Green For All and the NAACP, has been active in pushing for climate and energy legislation that works for disadvantaged communities.

Green the Block
Yesterday I – along with Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. and several Obama Administration officials – announced the Green the Block campaign at the White House (check out photos).
Green the Block is a campaign from Green For All and the Hip Hop Caucus to mobilize and engage communities of color and low-income communities in the movement for a clean energy economy.

Green the Block is based on the principle that lasting change will come only to communities that are active in
their own transformation. It’s about engaging people of color in the effort to bring a thriving clean-energy economy to communities that for too long have been broke and broken. And it’s about ensuring a fair share for these communities in the economic, social and environmental benefits of clean energy.

To successfully combat poverty and pollution, we need a vibrant, popular movement for change – one that
will easily defeat any “astroturf” stunts in which corporate interests fake popular support for their agenda.

We need a clean energy economy rooted in the values of shared prosperity and opportunity for all – and we need to engage, not use, communities of color to make it happen.

That’s one of the many things that corporate coal lobbyists will never do. And it is exactly what Green the Block is all about.

Authors: ada
Crossposted from Yahoo! HotJobs
So you've heard President Obama talk about green-collar jobs, and
you're ready to get one for yourself. If only you knew what a
green-collar job actually is.
The simplest definition of green-collar jobs comes from Green for All founder Van Jones:
"A green-collar job is a blue-collar job, upgraded to better respect the environment."
Jones knows what he is talking about. After all, he now serves as Special Advisor on Green Jobs to the White House.
Transforming Blue-Collar Work
Everyone
knows what a blue-collar job is, right? Many green-collar jobs are in
familiar fields like manufacturing, construction, and maintenance and
repair.
And like blue-collar jobs, many green-collar positions do
not require a college or graduate degree. Rather, some additional
technical skills and job training are often enough to ramp up workers
for green-collar jobs.
For a job seeker, this can be good news.
You may not need to learn entirely new skills in an entirely new field.
Instead, a few months of training may be enough to "green" your trade.
A steel worker is working a green-collar job if he or she is building a wind turbine.
Another
simple, yet essential, tenet of a green-collar job is that it is good
for people and planet. The "people" part means workers in green-collar
jobs must be paid a family-supporting wage, have safe working
conditions, and have opportunities for career advancement. Pushing a
broom for $7 an hour doesn't count as a green-collar job, even if it's
a solar-panel factory you're cleaning.
Over the next 18 months,
green-collar jobs are expected to grow significantly in the United
States, mainly due to government investment through the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus package). This means
more training programs that will give you a leg up in entering green-collar fields.
Opportunities to Watch For
Look
for growth in these fields below. This list illustrates the range of
green jobs available, from "green-collar" to white-collar work in green
fields:
Green Building Retrofitting -- Fixing up
buildings so that they leak less energy helps homeowners save on energy
bills, lowers the use of dirty energy, and creates jobs like:
- Energy auditor
- Green carpenter
- Insulation installer
- Environmental compliance specialist
Mass Transit and Transportation -- Clean mass transit options (trains and zero-emissions buses) that cut down on carbon pollution.
- Civil engineers
- Rail track layers
- Bus/train systems operator
- Urban planner
Renewable Energy
-- Wind and solar energy are clean and safe energy sources, and rapidly
expanding fields. It takes 250 tons of steel to make one wind turbine
-- that's a lot of work for steel workers, many of whom are currently
unemployed.
- Wind turbine machinist
- Solar and PV (photovoltaics) installer
- Iron and steel workers
- Solar operations engineer
Public Utilities (recycling, water treatment)
- Recycling center operator
- Waste water engineer
- Water quality consultant

Crossposted from kansascity.com
The Kansas City StarWithin a couple of years, Kansas City could become a green model for
turning around some of its poorest neighborhoods, officials said
Thursday.
Up to $200 million in federal stimulus money will
weatherize every home that needs it in a 150-block area, upgrade bus
services and provide much more help, they said.
“I’m so excited,
I’m trying to calm down,” said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City
Democrat who came up with the idea for a Green Impact Zone. “This is a
perfect storm of opportunity.”

Kansas City is taking the lead in
the nation by funneling as much stimulus money as possible over two
years into rebuilding one area of the city, Cleaver said. Local, state
and federal governments have agreed to work together on the plan.

“The
key is we are investing federal money wisely and building an inclusive
green economy strong enough to create jobs for residents,” said
Cleaver, who met with more than 50 neighborhood and community leaders
Thursday.
The money should translate into massive assistance for
the Ivanhoe, Manheim, 49/63, Blue Hills and Town Fork Creek
neighborhoods.
The Green Impact Zone is bordered on the west by
Troost Avenue, on the north by 39th Street, on the south by 51st Street
and on the east by Prospect Avenue and Swope Parkway. Bruce R. Watkins
Drive cuts a swath through the zone’s center.
One of the main
goals is to weatherize every home that needs it. That includes
replacing windows and furnaces with energy-efficient ones and making
other improvements that will reduce energy bills for residents.
“It’s
not uncommon for some people to have $600 and $800 gas bills a month in
the winter,” said Margaret May, executive director of the Ivanhoe
Neighborhood Council. “Some don’t have incomes that are much more than
that. There are so many needs here, and we need to make sure we are
spending this money in a manner that really benefits this area.”
In addition, plans to improve the zone include:
•Training the jobless to do weatherizing work, and possibly other work, in the zone.
•Developing a sustainable land-use plan for the area.
•Locating a green sewer demonstration project.
•Developing
a smart grid energy project, which would, for example, include
state-of-the-art wiring for electric cars and computers that control
household appliances.
•Increasing bus services and purchasing 15 buses.
•Replacing the current bridge at Troost and Volker to accommodate the improved Troost Corridor rapid-transit bus route.
•Building 25 new bus stations, which would be built to green standards and include a “real-time passenger information system.”
May
said neighborhood groups, community leaders, elected officials, Cleaver
and his staff, and a host of others have had several meetings to hash
out how to move forward with a plan that has so many components.
Cleaver
said he took his idea for focusing stimulus money on one zone to the
Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) and other leaders, who agreed to
funnel much of the money coming to Kansas City toward the Green Impact
Zone.
“Emanuel Cleaver’s innovative idea shows that we can build
a clean energy economy block by block,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey, a
Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Select Committee on Energy
Independence and Global Warming. “Our nation’s cities are laboratories
for energy solutions.”
Last week the Kansas City Council threw
its support behind the initiative, unanimously approving a resolution
to support the zone and partner with MARC to coordinate funding and
work.
Another partner will be Kansas City Power & Light. Officials
have plans to develop the smart grid and will explore alternative
energy options for businesses and institutions.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City is providing demographic data to the city about the neighborhoods.
The
Green Impact Zone of Missouri, the full name of the area, has some of
the highest unemployment rates in Kansas City — up to 55 percent in
some areas. Up to a third of residents in some neighborhoods are
without cars, and the entire area has the lowest median household
income in the city — $22,397 annually.
Already $42 million in
stimulus money has been identified to begin improvements, and that
investment will help attract more money, Cleaver said.
“Doing a
project that coordinates the stimulus dollars and targets them is a
very wise decision,” said Councilwoman Cindy Circo, who has helped push
the city’s environmental initiatives.
The stimulus funding will be coming through multiple agencies and will require a watchdog effort, officials said.
“This
will require coordination not only at the program level but also really
intense coordination at the neighborhood, and really, at the
(individual) house level,” said Dean Katerndahl with MARC. “To do that,
the neighborhood groups are going to have to be at the forefront.”

By Rev. Lennox Yearwood
Crossposted from The Huffington Post
4/5/09
Forty-one years ago today, on a
balcony in Memphis, TN, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was taken from us.
His dream, however, did not die on the balcony.
One year ago, on the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, I
was in Memphis at a very special and important gathering, the Dream
Reborn Conference organized by Green for All. This gathering
jumpstarted a nationwide movement for an inclusive green economy. Over
the course of a year this movement grew so quickly and became so
powerful, that we got $500 million dollars for green jobs training in
President Obama's economic recovery plan.
Now, our movement for climate justice and economic opportunity has a
critical role this month. We must fight for federal clean energy
legislation that will create jobs, help end our dangerous dependence on
foreign oil, and combat global warming.
This week, Congressman Henry Waxman, Chair of the Energy and
Commerce Committee and Congressman Edward Markey, Chair of the Energy
and Environment Subcommittee, released a draft of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). Here is a summary of the bill.
This legislation takes a step towards ending global warming, and by
working with our environmental movement allies we can align the cause
of ending urban poverty with the need to protect our environment. That
is, if we can connect the dots between what's good for our planet and
what's good for low-income urban communities.
You see, it is mostly poor people of color in the U.S. and around
the globe who are feeling the impact from climate change, through
increases in heat-related illnesses and deaths, rising energy costs,
and of course natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina.
We can end poverty and save our climate at the same time. Our
demands in the month of April to our Representatives in Congress should
be to create Clean Energy Jobs, rebuild our economy, save consumers and
businesses money through industry efficiency, protect consumers from
energy price spikes (like $4 a gallon gas last summer), and cap global
warming pollution to protect our vulnerable communities and avert the
high price of inaction.
One piece of legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security
Act, can do all this for us, if we make it so. Nothing is guaranteed
for Urban America in this green conversion, if the streets stay silent
on this issue.
We have come so far over the course of a year, as a movement we
worked both to elect the people we want to best represent us, and at
the same time, we fought hard on the issues that matter. Opportunity is
before us, and we must seize it.
I gave a speech one year ago, as the keynote to the opening plenary of the Dream Reborn Conference. Davey D,
a renowned Hip Hop journalist, remixed it. I would give the same exact
speech today, April 4, 2009 as we still fight for the Dream. Listen to
the speech with an introduction from my good friend Van Jones:

Authors: ada
By Adam Siegel
Crossposted from GetEnergySmartNow.Com
4/8/09
E3 (economy, energy, environment) presents us all with very
significant, even daunting challenges. Tackling these challenges right
also represents great opportunity to come out, at the other end,
stronger than we are today. Formed by more than two dozen
organizations, the Climate Equity Alliance
is a voice to see that we, collectively, pursue solutions to seize
opportunity and to help assure that climate solutions lead to a
stronger society, to greater social equity, rather than creating even
more societal stresses and worsening the rich-poor divide and weakening
the middle/lower-middle/lower-income individuals and communities across
the country.
From Green For All, one of the founding organizations

Those who are truly concerned with the future of our
planet, and our people (both in the short and long term), must be a
voice for strong climate legislation that protects and offers
opportunity to all Americas.
The Climate Equity Alliance has stepped up just in time, to be that voice.

Perhaps most important, the six principles are worthy of consideration and inclusion at the core of any climate legislation:

1. Protect people and the planet Limit
carbon emissions at a level and timeline that science dictates.
Policies designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions and advance climate
solutions must be aggressive and timely enough to ensure that the worst
environmental and economic consequences of global warming are averted.
Unchecked, the impacts of global warming will be costly for everyone,
but they will likely hit low and moderate income people, including
people of color, first and worst.

Principle 1 says take science seriously and align policy with
scientific knowledge, basing policy on reality rather than ideology.
In addition, it matters that there is a clear statement upfront
abotu costs: that unchecked catastrophic climate change will have
severe costs that should not be forgotten in discussing the costs and benefits of taking action to mitigate climate change.

2. Maximize the gain: Build an
inclusive green economy providing pathways into prosperity and
expanding opportunity for America’s workers and communities. The shift
to a low-carbon, clean, green economy has the potential to create large
numbers of quality green-collar jobs for American workers, grow
emerging industries, and improve the health of low and moderate income
people and people of color, who suffer disproportionately from cancer,
asthma and other respiratory ailments in the current pollution-based
economy. This shift represents a significant opportunity to make
cost-effective public and private investments that help rebuild and
retrofit our nation, and through training and job readiness programs,
to ensure that those who most need work are prepared to do the work
that most needs to be done.

Right now, for any number of reasons, the poorer you are, the more
likely you are to be suffering ill-effects from pollution. Cleaning up
our energy act will benefit those lower on the economic spectrum.
Done in the right manner, greening our economy will create
substantive opportunities throughout society, including creating a wave
of new opportunities for some of the communities most harshly hit by
the current economic crisis.

3. Minimize the pain Assist low and
moderate-income families in meeting their basic needs. Energy prices
are already rising as the world’s supply of fossil fuels fails to keep
pace with increasing demand. Because low and moderate-income households
spend a larger share of their budgets on energy and other basic costs
of living than better-off households, global warming legislation should
ensure that any further energy-related price increases are offset by
direct consumer rebates that effectively and efficiently reach these
households and workers, with the assistance delivered in ways that are
consistent with energy conservation goals, and with particular
attention to those most in need.

This is an important principle, but also a delicate one. In our
“BAU” (business as usual) situation, energy prices will go up
inexorably, without considering the massive implications of external
costs like asthma, acidification of the oceans, and global warming.
Thus, ‘doing nothing’ will worsen the energy costs situations for all
including, most harshly, low- and moderate-income households. Doing
nothing is not a good option.
While, in the long run, the total impact of Energy Smart policies
will be to create lower total energy services costs (what matters is
not the electricity delivered to your house, but whether you can
heat/cool it, refrigerate food, cook dinner, have lighting to read)
(costs including health impacts), there are risks that some
low/moderate-income households could be stressed during phases of the
transition to a clean energy economy. This principle says: take active
measures to reduce the risk of creating undue stress onto already
stressed families and communities.

4. Shore up resilience to climate impacts
Assure that those who are most vulnerable to the direct effects of
climate change are able to prepare and adapt. Climate change impacts
such as severe weather events and public health threats
disproportionately and adversely affect the most
vulnerable, including low income, minority, and immigrant populations.
At-risk communities need help adapting to the impacts of climate change
and preparing to respond effectively in the event of a natural
disaster.

Read this principle, think about the realities of Katrina and who
was hardest hit — and least well-served in the days beforehand and
afterwards. This could read: “no more Katrinas”.
The reality is that we will have climate change and many of the
effects already are catastrophic. We should invest, wisely, to limit
the impacts on all Americans but we have a moral and ethical
responsibility to provide for those least able to help themselves.

5. Ease the transition Address the
impacts of economic change for workers and communities. Workers in
older industries that are highly reliant on carbon based energy – and
the communities in which they’re concentrated – must be provided with
the assistance and tools necessary to make the transition to the
emerging low carbon economy and to be competitive for good jobs within
it.

Coal miners and communities have helped power this nation to
greatness. Even as we move off our coal addictions, we should be
fostering the miners and communities moves into new and cleaner
economic opportunities. The objective should be to help assure that
there is something better, already in hand, to replace 19th century
polluting economic models — again, both for individuals and communities.

6. Put a price on global warming pollution and invest in solutions
Capture the value of carbon emissions for public purposes and invest this resource in an equitable transition
to a clean energy economy. Greenhouse gas pollution should not result
in windfall profits for corporations. The money generated by placing a
price on carbon will be substantial, amounting to tens to hundreds of
billions of dollars a year. This resource should be used to invest in
the public good by ensuring an inclusive and fair transition to a
high-road green economy, which advances the needs of workers,
consumers, families, and diverse urban and rural communities while
protecting the planet.

Again, another serious principle. Polluters should pay. And, for the
most part, what they pay should be invested in paths to hasten the move
toward a prosperous, climate-friendly society.
All in all, these are six serious and valuable principles that
should be given serious weight in Congressional deliberations about
best paths forward on climate change.
Note: For a related discussion, see Rev Lennox Yearwood, President of the Hip-Hop Caucus, Tears from Heaven: Dr. King Would Want Climate Justice.

By Rebecca Bowe -- Crossposted from the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online

At a March 30 event hosted by Change SF, representatives from Green
for All, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and other grassroots
organizations opened up a dialogue about green jobs and federal
stimulus spending with District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and Mayor
Gavin Newsom’s director of climate protection initiatives, Wade
Crowfoot.
Participants spoke about projects they’re engaged in that are aimed
at promoting environmental justice, green-jobs training and
environmental education, and voiced support for programs that can boost
prospects for disadvantaged workers by preparing them for jobs in the
green sector. Supervisor Maxwell, a panelist, praised the audience for
their work, saying, “It makes me feel like I’m not out of my mind when
I’m asking, who are we stimulating with the stimulus package?”
At this stage of the game, Maxwell’s question has yet to be answered
with any real clarity. Crowfoot noted that as part of the
economic-recovery package, San Francisco is slated to receive some $7.7
million from a U.S. Department of Energy community block grant for
energy efficiency and conservation purposes. Additionally, the city
will receive some $1.5 million as part of a federal weatherization
assistance program, he said, which seeks to curb the energy consumption
of low-income residences. Crowfoot threw out some thoughts on how the
funding might be used -- including energy retrofits on city buildings,
initiating a program to replace inefficient boilers, and working
alongside existing community-based programs -- but on the whole the
outlook was vague, as he characterized these suggestions as still being
“in the universe of interesting ideas.” Applications for specific
project funding are due in late April, he noted. We tried calling a few
times today to get more details, but haven't heard back yet.
The California Green Stimulus Coalition,
an alliance of dozens of environmental organizations from throughout
the state, is organizing to influence the dialogue in Sacramento
regarding stimulus money for green programs. “A couple of years ago, we
were just trying to beat the drum and convince people that green jobs
and a green economy … was a good idea,” noted Coalition member Ian Kim,
with the Ella Baker Center, who was also a panelist. Today, he said,
the green-economy message is getting through, as evidenced by Green for
All founder Van Jones’ appointment as special advisor for green jobs at the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality.
The coalition is pushing hard for government transparency, and
they’ve put out an ideal scenario for how stimulus-dollars spending
would play out: “Federal, state, and local officials must uphold the
highest standards of transparency and accountability in decision-making
about stimulus funds. Each entity receiving funds (sub-contracts as
well as direct contracts) should report on jobs created, wage and
benefit levels, work hours performed and data related to the hiring and
training of target populations.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if they got their way?
View this event on our Recovery action website.

On
Saturday, March 28, at 9am, a dedicated group of 15 experienced
weatherizers and 40 people eager to learn new money-saving skills
swarmed the Jamaica Plain home of Judy Kolligian for a “Neighborhood
Weatherization Party” sponsored by Boston Climate Action Network
(BostonCAN). By the end of the morning they had weatherized her
mansard-roofed home, connecting the dots between global climate change
and local action to save energy and dollars. An air infiltration test
at 8am and a second one at 12:30 proved the effectiveness of the
morning’s work. Paul Eldrenkamp, the contractor who provided the
blower-door tests, declared, “The team was able to reduce the air
leakage in the house by about 15 percent – from 7700 cfm to 6600 cfm –
which is a terrific accomplishment for a group of volunteers giving up
a beautiful Saturday morning for the effort.”

Volunteer Ninya Loeppky talked about the importance of having a
practical way to do something about climate change, “Instead of laying
in bed at night worrying about polar bears and melting ice caps, I got
out of the house and did something practical to solve the problem, and
I met a bunch of great people while doing it. And it’s great knowing
that we cut Judy’s energy use by about 5 percent.”

Neighbors helping neighbors cut carbon

Like
a barn-raising in pioneer days, a “weatherization party” is a time for
neighbors to step out of their usual routines and come together for
hands-on, meaningful work. Energy conservation is job number one in
ending our dependence of foreign energy and a big part of President
Obama’s “green collar” jobs program. Stopping energy waste is also key
to stopping global warming but residents often don’t know what actions
will make a difference.

A weatherization party is an opportunity to
learn money-saving strategies from energy experts like Paul Marquis,
the Green House Doctor at Boston’s Green Roundtable. Marquis noted
that, “Considering the real change that’s needed to stop global climate
change and prepare for the changes we can’t avoid, it’s both necessary
and exciting to arm the average person with the knowledge about how to
improve their home’s comfort and affordability. Events like this help
to ‘advance the cause’ by altering the general mindset and making
energy and resource efficiency principles part of the common
vernacular.”

Tim, Becky, and Veronica glaze a new pane of glass

Many
of the weatherization party organizers are excited about the inclusion
of green jobs in the recently passed stimulus bill. Two students in
Roxbury Community College’s Green Technology program, were among the
volunteers getting hands-on experience during the weatherization party.
Loie Hayes, coordinator of BostonCAN told the volunteers, “The
green-collar job trainings funded through the stimulus plan will make
it a lot easier to find qualified people to do the energy conservation
renovations that we need in so many of our older homes in Boston. We
hope this party gives some of you the confidence to consider becoming a
professional weatherizer and others the experience you need to do
simple things for yourselves.”

Mar 19th, 2009With the American Recovery and Investment Act allotting millions of dollars in support of green-collar training, weatherization, and more energy-efficient infrastructure, now is a ripe time for minority entrepreneurs to jump into an industry that can not only help communities, but be good for bottom lines.
“While we have finally reached a point where saving the environment is not pitting trees against people and is, in fact, an opportunity for
innovation and entrepreneurship, communities and businesses of color need to be brought up to speed about what it means to be green, the
benefits, the costs, and the opportunities,” says Melissa Bradley-Burns, senior strategist for Green For All, an Oakland, California-based organization dedicated to “building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.”
Bradley-Burns, a Georgetown University graduate, leads the Capital Access Program at the organization, working to provide human, social,
and financial capital to entrepreneurs and businesses in an effort to create and sustain green jobs.
She spoke more with BlackEnterprise.com about the importance of environmental initiatives awareness, minority inclusion, and how simply
greening the office can help entrepreneurs cut costs.
BlackEnterprise.com:There have been several reports of organizations such as the Sierra Club pushing for
more diversity in the green movement. Why do you think many minorities are slow to get fully involved?Melissa Bradley-Burns: I think there is a lack of understanding on what it means to go green and the potential of a green
economy. It is not just a place where you can spend money. It is also an opportunity to earn money.
I think business owners of color have been hesitant to enter the space due to lack of data. When I read numerous studies on going green,
there is clearly a lack of statistics on minority consumption of green products and services.Most business owners will make decisions based
on data and not on a fad.
How can minority-owned businesses overcome challenges in getting involved?
The first thing to do is to get engaged in the conversation. The government is making big decisions about money and the environment. It
is important to be informed about what is happening at both the national and local levels. Check out Green For All’s Guide to the Economic Recovery Package as a starting point.
Second, businesses should work closely with environmental and policy organizations. Understand what you can be doing personally and
professionally to make the promise of an inclusive green economy a reality.
Third, get educated. Attend local conferences and trainings about the green economy. Learn where the business opportunities are and how to make money and save the environment at the same time.
What are some ways small businesses can tap into the support, both financially and resource-wise, when trying to get involved in the green movement?
In terms of money, it is important to know where to look. In terms of public funding, I would refer readers to Green For All’s guide to understanding the recovery package.
In terms of private capital, I recommend that businesses look into local funding organizations committed to the community – known as Community Development Financial Institution (or CDFIs). These lending institutions have historically been engaged in business development and are now focusing on investing in green.
I also refer readers to angel investors. Many angel investors have been involved in the green economy for a while and are interested in
providing their business acumen, financial support and environmental expertise to business owners. To identify angel investors, look for
local groups or check out Angelcapitalassociation.org for more information.
How can a business owner work within urban communities, and how will those communities benefit from green initiatives?
A majority of the work in the recovery package is geared at cities, so there are tremendous opportunities for both businesses and vulnerable communities to realize the potential of an inclusive green economy.
Greening the ghettos is the first place to start. A shift to a green economy can improve the health and well-being of low-income people, who suffer disproportionately from cancer, asthma, and other respiratory ailments in our current pollution-based economy. Such a shift can also create and expand entrepreneurial, wealth-building opportunities for American workers who need new avenues of economic advance.
Businesses should work closely with community organizations to create employment opportunities for at-risk youth and engage recent participants of local green-collar job training programs.
It is important to know that almost anything can be “greened,” so regardless of the business you are in, there are environmentally sound
practices that can be integrated into your daily work.
What are some things businesses can do to go green and still look out for their bottom lines?
Currently, buildings account for 40% of our nation’s energy use and carbon emissions – more than transportation.By applying cost-effective, energy-efficiency measures – from adding insulation to replacing inefficient boilers – businesses can significantly lower
their utility bills while reducing their carbon footprint.
Businesses can start greening their offices today by using recycled paper, installing energy efficient lighting, recycling printer cartridges, and using low- or non-toxic cleaners around the workplace.
Web ResourcesGreen For AllUnited States Treasury Department’s CDIF FundWe Can Solve It 1sky

We've heard a lot about the Green Collar
Jobs movement. But as the movement grows, organizations like Green For
All will be working to ensure it reaches low-income communities that
have traditionally been more adversely affected by an economy based on
waste and dirty energy.

Melissa Bradley-Burns, a senior strategist with Green for All,
joins us to talk about how we can make the next wave of technological
and business innovation more equitable. She'll tell us about how we can
use the resources available in the recent stimulus package to work
toward that vision.
Also, Ms. Shopping Golightly of the Thrifty Chicks Blog
tells us about the importance of renewing the embodied energy of a
product and lowering our carbon footprint by thrift shopping.
This week's podcast is supported by Solar Energy International,
a non-profit organization offering hands-on workshops and training
opportunities in solar, wind, water power and natural building
technologies.
Inside Renewable Energy offers the latest in renewable energy news and information.

Clean Energy Corps Proposed to Create Jobs, Fight Global Warming

WASHINGTON, DC, March 2, 2009 (ENS) - More than 80 labor,
environmental, civic, and policy organizations have endorsed a proposal
to secure America's economic recovery and environmental health by
applying energy-efficient measures to over 15 million existing
buildings - from adding insulation to replacing inefficient boilers.

The Clean Energy Corps would combine job creation, service, and
training to combat global warming. "The beauty of the Clean Energy
Corps is that it doesn't just create jobs," said Green For All founder
Van Jones, "it also creates pathways out of poverty."

The Clean Energy Corps is a proposal of the Clean Energy Corps
Working Group, which includes representatives of the Apollo Alliance,
Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Economic and
Policy Research, Center on Wisconsin Strategy, Corps Network, Energy
Action Coalition, Green For All, Innovations in Civic Participation,
and 1Sky.

"At a time of severe hardship in the construction sector, retrofitting
residential buildings to cut energy use can save consumers money,
expand economic growth, reduce pollution, and create jobs," said
Bracken Hendricks, senior fellow at Center for American Progress.

By retrofitting millions of structures, the Clean Energy Corps proposes
to create at least 600,000 living-wage, career-track jobs in green
industries, train people for them, and directly engage millions of
Americans in diverse service-learning and volunteer work related to
climate protection.

The organizers suggest that the new Corps be led by President Barack
Obama and administered through a new Energy Security Council that they
say would compare to the existing National Security Council in
flexibility and executive coordination of relevant departments,
programs, and cabinet secretaries.

The Energy Security Council would be subject to regular independent
oversight, evaluation and reporting to Congress on the achievement of
program aims, organizers say.

"The Clean Energy Corps will be the vehicle through which the
growing consensus to combat global warming through the creation of
long-term, family-supporting jobs becomes a reality," said Theodore
Green, advisor to the general president at Laborers' International
Union of North America.

"We look forward to working through CEC with the full range of
stakeholders - governmental bodies at the national, state and local
levels, community organizations, environmental groups and our signatory
employers - to improve and protect the lives of working men and women,"
he said.

The Clean Energy Corps is intended as a collaborative and cost-effective national initiative entailing minimal new bureaucracy.

Retrofits would be financed out of a federal revolving loan
fund, where the loan is paid back out of a portion of the savings on
energy bills.

The CEC would be funded through established programs - Department of
Energy, Department of Labor, and Corporation for National and Community
Service - and also through new programs, organizers say.

The real work of the Clean Energy Corps would occur at the state and
local levels and grant funds would be awarded directly to state task
forces and local CEC partnerships.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is leading the way with its launch
Thursday of a Kentucky Clean Energy Corps pilot program with $1 million
of existing state and private funds.

Under the stewardship of Governor Steve Beshear, the program is
working with 100 low income Kentucky households in Lexington and rural
Bourbon and Clark Counties to make their homes more energy efficient,
reduce utility bills and engage Kentuckians in service.

"We salute the work that groups like Center for American Progress and
Green For All are doing to bring the Clean Energy Corps idea to the
nation's attention," said Governor Beshear. "And we are proud that our
state is taking national leadership and serving as a role model in the
effort to turn our economy around through innovative programs that
create good, new jobs while protecting the environment."

The Kentucky households will receive an energy audit to determine leaks
in the building envelope. Each household will receive a volunteer-led,
energy efficiency rehabilitation, to potentially include insulation of
ducts, attics, walls, and ceilings, weather-stripping, and replacement
of leaky doors and windows. Roofs, siding and foundations could be
repaired or replaced.

Inefficient furnaces, refrigerators, water heaters, and light bulbs may
be replaced with efficient models and heat pumps, and unsafe electrical
equipment will be upgraded.

Selected homes in the Kentucky pilot program will test
renewables such as solar water heating. Utilities will provide smart
energy meters for monitoring and documenting of real-time energy usage,
to track savings and efficiencies, with third party verification of the
savings generated.

Jonathan Miller, secretary of the Kentucky Finance and
Administration Cabinet, says the program will go statewide with at
least $77 million in federal economic stimulus money. Organizers
predict it will create 3,300 jobs in the first year.

In addition to generating hundreds of thousands of jobs,
organizers say the Clean Energy Corps would reduce America's greenhouse
gas emissions. Currently, buildings account for 40 percent of U.S.
energy use and carbon emissions - more than transportation.

This is a big weekend for the green jobs movement. Today is the
first meeting of Vice President Joe Biden's new Middle Class Task
Force. This first meeting will focus on green jobs as a pathway to a
strong middle class. Today also marks the beginning of Power Shift
'09, a conference that will run through Monday and draw more than
10,000 young people from across the country. They will share ideas and
strategies for helping our elected officials rebuild our economy
through bold climate and clean energy policy — and making sure those
elected officials get the job done.

When the White House and the campuses are speaking
the same language, you know the country is ready to do something
special. America is ready for the 21st century. It's ready for good,
green jobs that provide pathways out of poverty while protecting and
restoring the planet.

I can't wait to see it happen. What we're already seeing is unbelievably exciting.

In
Newark, NJ, local government, business and labor are pioneering a
public-private partnership to get everyday people quality jobs doing
green retrofits on low-income seniors' homes, keeping them warm and
saving them money. In Pennsylvania, urban farming is producing cheap,
clean biofuels while wind-power giant Gamesa is providing hundreds of
green manufacturing jobs to the state. In Seattle, the county's
Opportunity Greenway helps young, court-involved adults (ages 16 to 21)
get their lives on track with paid internships in one of three
high-wage, high-demand green career tracks: transportation, energy, and
natural resources.

These are just a few promising examples of local
green economic development. There are many more throughout the
country. If we nurture them, they can grow into a large-scale green
economy, strong enough to solve the ecological crisis and lift millions
of people out of poverty.

The White House is working from treetops to make
this happen. The campuses and communities are working from the
grassroots. I like our chances. And I can't wait to see it all unfold.

Pretty soon, Kermit the Frog is going to need a new song to sing. I'm not saying it's easy being green. But it's getting easier.

As part of the $787 billion stimulus package that President Obama just signed, the federal government will be investing about $60 billion in clean energy, environmental projects, and scientific research.

Gene Karpinski, head of the League of Conservation Voters, calls it "by far the biggest investment in new green technologies that we've ever seen from the federal government."

This is a huge step forward for America. The twin crises of economic collapse and ecological devastation have proven that the old, pollution-based economy has failed both the people and the planet. The 'green' money in the stimulus package is a down payment on a clean, green economy that will serve both the people and the planet.

Check out some of the details:

* $11 billion for the creation of a smart energy grid * $8.4 billion for public transit * $6.3 billion for state and local energy efficiency grants * $6 billion for the cleanup of contaminated Department of Defense sites * $4.5 billion to green federal buildings * $1.2 billion for the EPA's cleanup programs

Plus, the final version of the bill eliminates the loan guarantees the Senate had included for nuclear and so-called clean coal technology development -- false environmental 'solutions' that would have made matters worse, not better.

It's an especially exciting moment for me and my colleagues at Green For All, the Apollo Alliance, the Workforce Alliance and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. The stimulus includes $500 million for green jobs training -- funding we've been trying to get for two years. That means that the recovery package won't just stimulate the green economy. It will also make sure that the green economy includes pathways out of poverty for low-income people and people of color.

If only the billions that went to tax cuts had been used for even more green investments! Then Kermit would have had to completely rewrite that song.

Almost two months have gone by since President Obama nominated Rep. Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor.

But some Senate Republicans are playing petty politics, holding up her confirmation. It looks like a cynical and misguided attempt to score points at the expense of the new Democratic President and his cabinet nominee.

America desperately needs a Secretary of Labor, with 600,000 workers losing their jobs just last month. Rep. Solis is eminently qualified for the post. Her entire career is a testament to her deep commitment to making sure everyday people have equal access to educational and economic opportunity. Plus she brings a deep commitment to environmental justice and green jobs for all.

I got to see that commitment up close, when I worked with Rep. Solis on the Green Jobs Act of 2007. That innovative law is designed to get skills and training to America's workers in the critical, emerging industries of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Rep. Solis co-authored and championed that bill -- and got it signed into law by President Bush. She'll bring the same vision, political skill and bipartisan approach to the Department of Labor.

But instead of getting to work solving the country's problems, Rep. Solis has been forced to wait and watch while a few Republican Senators try to make political hay of her husband's small business tax woes. Her husband, Sam Sayyad, owed a few thousand dollars in back taxes. He paid them. And the county says there is no reason to think he was trying to avoid paying his taxes.

So enough is enough. It's time to put country before politics. Give America the Labor Secretary we need and deserve. Confirm Hilda Solis ... NOW.

There is no such thing as clean coal. The extraction of coal in Appalachia has destroyed 450 mountaintops and 1,200 miles of rivers and streams by dumping "overfill" into the valleys from mountaintop removal mining. Coal is not clean.

The processing of the coal has left millions of gallons of toxic black slurry in "ponds" that have leeched into aquifers, rendering water sources unusable. Held back by huge earthen dams in former beautiful valleys, one such "pond" burst a few years ago and was described by the EPA as a disaster worse than the Exxon Valdez oil spill (see www.ilovemountains.org). Coal is not clean.

The eight proposed coal-fired power plants in Michigan claim that they will be more efficient and reduce emissions compared to older coal plants they may be replacing. That may be true, but does that make them clean?

Let's look at one, the Rogers City/Wolverine proposal. According to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, this proposed "state of the art" coal plant will emit the following toxic contaminants: particulate matter, 975 tons per year; sulfur dioxide, 1,344 tons per year; nitrogen oxide, 2,647 tons per year; carbon monoxide, 4,002 tons per year; volatile organic compounds, 171.7 tons per year; lead, 0.36 tons per year; sulfuric acid mist, 80 tons per year; fluorides, 8 tons per year. This list does not even include carbon dioxide, which is the leading cause of climate change, nor does it include the leftover ash that is often disposed of in unsafe landfills. Coal is not clean.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (www.psr.org) reports that coal-fired power plants are one of "the nation's largest sources of air pollutants that damage cardiovascular and respiratory health and threaten healthy child development." Coal is not clean.

Finally, so-called "clean coal technology" often refers to "carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)." There is not one CCS demonstration project in the entire United States, let alone a commercial size operation where this theoretical technology has been shown to work. Even if it is possible to safely "bury" or store carbon dioxide, it is estimated that a workable, commercial-size effort is decades away. Should we continue to fund the research? Maybe. But let's be honest about its timing and its promise.

In the current economic climate, it would be crazy to invest billions of dollars into outmoded, polluting coal plants that we will be stuck with for 50 to 60 years. Nor does it make sense to send more of our tax dollars out of state to buy and transport the coal. The health and financial risks for the state, for Lansing and for ratepayers are enormous. Even major banks are pulling back from these projects. No matter how you look at it, coal is a dirty deal.

It makes more sense to invest in vigorous energy- efficiency programs that will create good jobs, help ratepayers reduce their electric bills and reduce our need for electricity. We can then pursue true clean energy.

Steve Rall of Lansing is a member of Lansing Can Do Better, "a coalition promoting reasonable alternatives to new coal plants."

By Kristina Rizga
January 28th, 2009
In the fall of 2004, then-college student Julian Mocine-McQueen was outraged that the prosperous city of San Francisco was doing little to prevent or talk about the high rate of homicides among young African-American and Latino men. So he started organizing young people around violence prevention programs through the League of Young Voters, a national voter engagement organization that also supports community organizers working with low-income youth. He had no idea that in a few years he would move from violence prevention to environmental justice. Mocine-McQueen, 28, is now a field organizer with Green For All, a national advocacy organization dedicated to supporting local activists in their efforts to improve their neighborhoods through energy conservation and job-creation initiatives. "Green jobs allowed me to address the root causes of violence--no jobs, no money," he explains.
On February 4 Mocine-McQueen is heading to Good Jobs, Green Jobs--a conference in Washington, DC, where more than 1,000 labor leaders will learn tactics on how to press the government to expand markets for green jobs. He will hold sessions that emphasize building a more inclusive economy--one that creates wealth-building opportunities for historically neglected, low-income communities of color. He is encouraged to see the growing numbers of supportive labor groups across the country who recognize the need to diversify their ranks.
Then, from February 27 to March 2, Mocine-McQueen will attend Power Shift 2009, a gathering of more than 10,000 young environmental activists, also in Washington, put together by the Energy Action Coalition (EAC) in partnership with fifty of its membership organizations, including Green For All. "As future inheritors of this planet, young people get the urgency of this problem," says Jessy Tolkan, EAC's executive director. In 2007 Power Shift--part political rally, part concert, part K Street-style lobbying day--brought more than 6,000 young people to Washington. The event helped firmly plant the concept of green jobs within the organizing landscape of young climate change activists. "That message of green jobs is really sticking with young people, because it is so solutions-oriented," Tolkan explains. A proof of its growing appeal: EAC's e-mail list has grown from 10,000 to 500,000 since 2007.
But the impact of the student green jobs movement should also be measured in the powerful change it has brought to lives and communities. Take Pittsburgh native Chester Thrower III. The first time he heard of "green jobs" was a year ago. He Googled the term and found videos of the idea's fiercest preacher, Green For All founder Van Jones. It wasn't the first time Thrower heard outsiders promising jobs for Pittsburgh's predominantly African-American neighborhoods, where the unemployment rate for males has been among the highest in the nation for decades. But this time it felt different. Jones struck a chord within him. Jones told Thrower that he could be an entrepreneur, that he could run his own business someday.
Thrower was inspired. He could think of only four people who own small businesses in the Manchester neighborhood of Pittsburgh where he grew up. The rest worked primarily in service industries, making minimum wage. His friend Khari Mosley from the League of Young Voters helped him enroll in the Green For All Academy late last year so he could hear Jones speak in person. There, Jones laid out some potential paths for Thrower's dream of becoming his own boss. What really moved Thrower to action was the realization that with this business, he would also have the power to give something back to his neighborhood. He could give unemployed young people on Pittsburgh's street corners good jobs retrofitting old, polluted buildings and installing solar panels. "That enlightened me and got me interested in the solar panels," Thrower recalls. "I figure the sun is always going to be here, and I could learn to harness that somehow."
In February Thrower will be taking a ten-week class on solar panel installation that will cost him only $350, including books--much less than a vocational certificate or college degree. The class will be taught by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 95 in Pittsburgh. Thrower plans to work with the League of Young Voters to create more classes like these targeted at young people in urban, working-class neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.
Thrower sees green jobs as the best way to stop drug-related violence in Pittsburgh. For more than a year, he worked as a community organizer in Manchester, and almost every young person he approached asked him, "Can you get me a job?" Thrower felt powerless as he watched young people sell drugs to help their parents pay their bills.
Nationally, there are about 1.7 million low-income youths (16 to 24) who were out of school and out of work in 2005, according to a report by the Center for American Progress. Many of them live in areas of concentrated poverty and are often striving for precious few opportunities that the corporate media glorify--rap stars, professional athletes. When Thrower tells young people in Manchester about green jobs, "it goes in one ear and out the other." Despite this, he is confident that once he starts to put solar panels up in his neighborhood, he'll become a tangible new role model young people will want to emulate.
The trouble is: there are no solar installation jobs in Manchester for Thrower right now. That's why he is working with the League of Young Voters to lobby for job-training support and energy efficiency grants from the city, state and federal government that will help create the demand for these newly trained workers. "The time is now," Thrower says, raising his voice. "If low-income people are not aware and are not exposed to these opportunities right now, two, three years later it may be too late. We may get shut out of the process again."
While local leaders like Thrower and Mocine-McQueen work to build awareness about green jobs block by block, and groups like Green For All build alliances between traditional blue-collar workers and lower-income communities of color, EAC adds a powerful punch to this cause from the nation's campuses. The result is the largest and most diverse youth and student movement in the country. Young voters were a key constituency in the election of this country's first African-American president, and thousands of Power Shift 2009 activists will let Congress know that this powerful voting bloc expects not only substantive investments in the transition to a green economy but also explicit provisions for green job growth for unemployed youth.
Youth organizers, who work on the margins of American society to eliminate racism and poverty through issues like prison and public school reforms, haven't had so much reason for hope in a long time. The growing popularity of energy conservation and green jobs among people of all ages and backgrounds, the openness among some moderate Republicans to a green economy as a pathway to more entrepreneurship and innovation, and the urgent need to come up with an economic recovery plan present the potential for a perfect political storm. This unprecedented coalition, standing at a historic crossroads, might just create enough of a critical mass to push through something that finally benefits working-class youth in communities like Manchester.
About Kristina RizgaKristina Rizga is the executive editor of WireTap, a political youth magazine, project director of Future5000.com and a member of the editorial board of The Nation.

We
are on the verge of a clean energy revolution that has potential to
create millions of new jobs, revive our economy, and finally free us
from our dependence on foreign oil. It is refreshing that we will soon
have a president that understands the importance of investing in the
green economy to secure America's future prosperity and security. But,
it is equally important that we invest our money in programs that are
working.
Last week, President-elect Obama announced that the nation's
economic stimulus plan - will double alternative energy production in
three years, cut the use of fossil fuels by improving energy efficiency
in 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings, and invest
heavily in public transportation.
As Congress debates Obama's plan to create millions of green jobs,
it is critical to ensure that these jobs are inclusive and our money is
spent wisely. In San Francisco, we are doing this through our solar
incentive program, GoSolarSF,
the nation's largest solar municipal rebate program. GoSolarSF offers a
bigger rebate to companies that hire workers from the city's workforce
development program. Since the program launched in July, applications
for new solar installations have nearly quadrupled.
On my Green 960 radio show this past week, I discussed the green collar economy with Van Jones, founder of best selling book on the topic and Dave Lorens, founder of 1 Block Off the Grid (1BOG), a San Francisco based company that is transforming the solar industry. Listen to the podcast.
"Who will get these jobs? Are there pathways out of poverty into
prosperity? The big opportunity we have here is to build a green
economy that Dr. King would be proud of," said Van Jones. "This is not
our great-grandmother's economy that we are trying to fix in terms of
inclusion and equity. This is one we are going to build ourselves, in
our lifetime, so let's [build this new clean energy sector] with
inclusion built in."
1BOG's web site organizes homeowners to bargain together to drive
down the costs of solar installation, and selects solar companies that
hire installers through city workforce development programs. Members of
1BOG first solar program negotiated up to a 43% savings for
participants. The company launched in San Francisco, the day after we
passed GoSolarSF, and has spread to 20 cities.
As Obama's new energy plan takes shape we should look to innovative
companies like 1BOG and programs like GoSolarSF that provide
opportunities for all communities to have a place in the new, green
economy.
Listen to Mayor Newsom's radio show online or subscribe to his weekly policy discussions on iTunes. This week's guest is Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Stay in touch with Mayor Newsom by joining his growing Facebook family. You can also join him on Twitter.

Authors: ada
Crossposted from apolloalliance.org
By Cassandra Stern
Apollo News Service
January 5th, 2009G
NEW ORLEANS - The shape of a national clean energy, good jobs training program for young people is gaining real definition here, where 800 young people are beginning full-time service as part of the Conservation Corps of Greater New Orleans, earning real money, educational stipends and preparing for careers in the new green economy while helping rebuild their hurricane and flood-damaged city from the ground up.
“This is the one time that a city actually has the opportunity to be reborn and be better,” said Jim Gordon, program manager for Limitless Vistas, Inc., a nonprofit workforce training and development program. Limitless collaborates with the national Conservation Corps network to train at-risk, inner-city youth for work as certified environmental field technicians. “The school system is being rebuilt, the city is being rebuilt. The question now is how do you make sure this is an inclusive process?”
The New Orleans green-collar training program is an example of both the need and opportunity to train American workers for the myriad jobs that the Apollo Alliance and many labor economists anticipate in the new clean energy economy. Those programs are likely to receive a huge boost this month when President-elect Barack Obama makes public a mammoth economic stimulus proposal — perhaps as large as $700 billion to $1 trillion over two years — to put 2.5 million people back to work. Congressional leaders say that the new president will propose spending $100 billion or more over two years on clean energy development.

Authors: ada
Crossposted from The Apollo Alliance Blog.
by Lillian Wilson
After studying to become a nurse, Olivia Caldwell (see pic with Mayor Dellums) discovered that hospitals and health care organizations have restrictions on hiring formerly incarcerated people. Construction companies have no such restrictions, so she decided to join Cypress Mandela where she learned about the Oakland Green Jobs Corps. Olivia, mother to one-year-old Summer, is now a trainee in the Oakland Green Jobs Corps program. Olivia is excited about this new opportunity because she wants to provide for her daughter and looks forward to helping create a healthy world for her daughter. “With this training I can provide for the future of my one-year-old daughter and the future of our planet.”
Providing “green pathways out of poverty,” the Oakland Green Job Corps will serve young adults who face barriers to employment - poverty, lack of work experience, limited education, cultural and language barriers, or history with the criminal justice system. The teachers at Cypress Mandela provide wraparound services and work with the students to help them achieve basic literacy and math skills, pass their GED, learn personal finance, get their drivers license or clear their driving record, and pass their weekly drug tests.
The students receive hands-on training in the construction trades, as well as specific training for green-collar jobs, such as solar panel installation, energy efficiency and green construction. The program will also include a section on eco-education and environmental literacy.
“This is a very elegant idea, elegant in its simplicity,” said Mayor Ronald Dellums of Oakland “The idea is to fight pollution and fight poverty simultaneously.”
The Oakland Green Jobs Corps proudly launched in October 2008, after more than two years of hard work by the Oakland Apollo Alliance and a rich network of supporters and partners. The program officially launched at a press conference on October 25 that featured elected officials, employers, labor union leaders, community members, and for the first time, students of the training program.
Elected officials from all levels of government celebrated the kick-off, including Mayor Dellums, U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Oakland City Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Jane Brunner, state legislators Loni Hancock and Sandre Swanson, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, and Peralta Community College Chancellor and former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris.
The Oakland Green Jobs Corps is a partnership between Laney Community College, Cypress Mandela Construction Training Program, and a workforce intermediary called Growth Sector. This partnership is designed to insure that students graduate with the training, education, and support they need to qualify for employment with green-collar businesses. The first cohort of 40 students will be placed in jobs by Spring 2009.
In order to guarantee that the graduates of the Oakland Green Jobs Corps are placed in jobs paying a living wage, the Ella Baker Center organized the Green Employer Council comprised of green businesses and non-profits in the East Bay that do solar installation, green construction, and energy efficiency work. Members of the Green Employer Council agree to provide paid work experience and jobs for graduates. Roughly half of the graduates will take jobs with union contractors.
“It is critical for green workforce development to be demand driven”, said Ian Kim of the Ella Baker Center. “We don’t want to train people up for jobs that don’t exist, and we want the training to be tailored for employer’s real-time needs.”
The program’s model for green workforce development is based upon the research of Professor Raquel Pinderhughes of San Francisco State University and the work of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Oakland Apollo Alliance.
The City of Oakland provided $250,000 in seed funding for the Oakland Green Job Corps, a signature victory of the Oakland Apollo Alliance. The city awarded these funds through a competitive process to identify the partnership most qualified to launch a new green job training program.
This groundbreaking job training program turns rhetoric into a reality, and will provide a useful model for other cities.
– Lillian Wilson, Campaign Associate, Ella Baker Center

President-elect
Barack Obama got it right when he announced Representative Hilda Solis
as his pick for the next secretary of labor. Headlines are heralding
her as the first Latino to hold the post. But the green jobs movement
is jumping for joy not only because she's brown. It's because she's
green. Through Solis, Obama makes clear his commitment to creating
green jobs to lift the nation out of its current economic crisis.

We're thrilled that Hilda Solis shares the green jobs vision. In
fact, she's already helped make it real. Rep. Solis was the original
author of the Green Jobs Act, and our Green For All team worked closely
with her in 2007. During that year's Congressional session, she worked
with colleagues on both sides of the aisle and was instrumental in
getting that hallmark legislation passed. Her work demonstrated her
commitment to a socially responsible, clean-energy economy that will
create millions of good-paying jobs and save our environment. She is
the right secretary of labor to take advantage of a great opportunity
not only to make America's economy stronger by making it greener, but
also to make Americans living in poverty part of a revitalized middle
class.

As Obama raises his right hand on inauguration day, he should be
signing new green jobs bills with his left. Early next year, Green For
All will join a coalition of groups advocating for the Clean Energy
Corps. The Clean Energy Corps is a combined service, training, and
job-creation effort to combat global warming, grow local and regional
economies, and demonstrate the promise of the clean energy economy.

You'll hear more from Green For All in the upcoming year. We're a
national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy,
strong enough to lift people out of poverty. By advocating for local,
state and federal commitments to job creation, job training, and
entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy --
especially for people from disadvantaged communities -- Green For All
fights both poverty and pollution at the same time. For more
information, please visit our web site.

Authors: KJ Meyer
Cross-posted from The Nation
// <![CDATA[
var EmailArticleWindow;
function email_article_popup (uri) {
if (!uri) { uri = window.location; }
var url = '/email/email.mhtml?i=20081117&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;s=green_jobs&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;type=article';
if ((EmailArticleWindow) &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; (EmailArticleWindow.closed != true)) {
EmailArticleWindow.location.href = url;
} else {
EmailArticleWindow = window.open(url,'EmailArticleWindow',"scrollbars=1,resizable=1,height=450,width=520");
}
// ]]>KJ MeyerOctober 29, 2008
"It's a rush," Alvarro Jasso explains as he talks about standing atop a
windmill 260 feet in the air. An Operation Maintenance Servicer for
Suzlon Energy, Alvarro thinks the lengthy 20-minute ladder climb to the
top is well worth the effort.
But perched on a sliver of steel, twenty-six stories above the broad
expanse of the Texas panhandle is a far cry from the eight-by-fourteen
foot jail cell he found himself in four years ago. Alvarro's trip from
prison to views rivaling some CEO's was made possible by a growing trend
of economic empowerment programs creating "
green-collar jobs" for low-income youth in the nation's emerging
renewable energy economy.
After being released from jail, Alvarro ran across a program called YouthBuild, where he learned advanced carpentry and practical
job skills that helped land his current job. YouthBuild is one of
several programs across the country striving for inclusion of people
from low-income communities in our nation's developing green economy.
One in eight Americans live in poverty and about 1.7 million poor youths
were out of school and out of work in 2005, according to a recent report by the Center for American Progress.
Long before green-collar jobs became economic empowerment buzzwords,
YouthBuild's founder, Dorthy Stoneman, realized the potential that
equipping young people with practical job skills could have on both
their employment potential and their communities. Over 25 years ago,
Stoneman started YouthBuild, a youth empowerment program now serving
over 200 areas around the world by teaching at-risk youth valuable
trades while building housing for low-income communities. Training 7,000
at-risk individuals a year, YouthBuild helps youths earn their GEDs,
start a business, and have a chance at a new life with eighty percent of
participants continuing on to college or jobs, according to the agency.
Since YouthBuild pioneered the concept of providing pathways out of
poverty for low-income youth for over a generation, it's no surprise
that the organization has joined the chorus of groups embracing the
recent green-collar jobs movement. Eva Blake, YouthBuild's Green
Initiative Director explained the organizational shift over the past few
years in gearing its housing rehabilitation and construction programming
toward the emerging green economy.
"YouthBuild calls for greater social and environmental equity from the
economic gains that a new green economy promises...," Blake stated, "It
was a natural transition for YouthBuild programs to embrace the
principles and practices of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and
green building as opportunities for students ... while preparing for
some of the fastest growing sectors in today's economy."
According to the American Solar Energy
Society, 2006 saw $970 billion in industry revenues and 8.5 million
jobs in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors. The Apollo
Alliance, a joint venture of labor and environmental groups, illustrates that
a considerable investment in renewable technology could lead to over 3
million new green jobs, fuel $1.4 trillion in new Gross Domestic Product
and produce $284 billion in net energy savings.
According to Blake, "The YouthBuild construction site provides a ready
training ground for learning retrofitting, the installation of renewable
energy, sustainable landscaping, arboriculture,
recycling and materials reuse, and other promising green collar sector
skills."
Building Pathways Out of Poverty
Alvarro thinks his green job maintaining and servicing windmills pays
well and there's the potential to advance in the company. But his
current success and the opportunities that lay in front of him are a
long way from where he was just a few years ago.
"It was pretty much from job to job, hanging out with the wrong crowd,
getting in trouble a lot" Alvarro explains of life after he dropped out
of high school in ninth grade. "It was pretty rough ... being out there
and not having a job or keeping a job."
After several tough years, Alvarro finally landed in jail with a felony
conviction. Describing jail as a "pretty good wake-up call," Alvarro
found himself at a turning point. He earned his GED while in jail, and
when he got out, found YouthBuild. Similar to the way the program helps
other individuals from low-income communities, YouthBuild provided a
platform for Alvarro to learn skills that transformed his life.
YouthBuild also sees its mission as more than putting graduates in the
renewable energy sector. According to Blake, "The Green Industry Career
Pathways project bridges interested YouthBuild students to careers in
arboriculture and other green industries ... ." These programs "link
YouthBuild students to industry professionals and teach the youth
marketable skills in arboriculture, landscaping, and forestry through
work days and internships."
James Harvey is an individual who directly benefitted from his green job
training. A self-described "straight hoodlum" from Brockton
Massachusetts, at age 16, Harvey spent more time cutting class than
anything else. Owning his own landscaping business was not even a
thought in James' mind. Today, at age 20, that's exactly what he's
getting ready to do. He started with YouthBuilld four years ago and has
earned his GED and learned the carpentry trade by building houses with
the program.
From there James got a job with the Trustees of Reservations--a local
non-profit dedicated to preserving parks and other outdoor spaces for
public use. Now he does landscaping and preservation with an eye toward
owning his own business one day.
Challenges and Opportunities
Despite such success stories, myriad obstacles remain in getting
green-collar job programs up and running. From city zoning laws to state
and federal tax incentives, creating the infrastructure to support a
large-scale green-collar jobs movement is significant and unique to
different locales.
According to Blake, two of the green-collar workforce's biggest tasks
are convincing hesitant employers about the potential of unemployed and
out-of-school youth and setting realistic expectations for the youth.
Blake also points out that, "As an industry that has largely not been
known for its cultural, economic, and racial diversity begins to absorb
larger numbers of people of color and people with varied backgrounds,
businesses and organizations will also be challenged to provide their
staff with tools for cultural competency."
Many states and communities also have distinct challenges to
green-collar job development. These include individual state wage laws
and local hiring practices, uncertain government support for the
industry, and a general lack of understanding of the industry. The
primary obstacle though, is a need for better coordination and planning
for green-collar projects.
For example, when renewable energy and energy efficiency projects are
created, out-of-state laborers are often brought in due to lack of
skilled workers in a given area. Therefore, one of the primary focuses
for most regions is creating a workforce that can mirror the potential
jobs in any given area. For area business and government leaders this
means creating a plan that prioritizes local hiring and includes at-risk
youth from green-collar development programs.
The solution to these challenges lies in a systematic approach that
plans for worker development along with the potential for future jobs.
The Greener Pathways report put together by
Green for All advocacy group
suggests a list of principles for planning these job development
programs. According to the report, "[S]tates are in an ideal position to
develop models now to build a strong and equitable green economy."
Above all, green collar job programs should be developed in coordination
with planning for potential regional job growth, the report argues. A
series of procedures that begins with a strong understanding of what
energy regulations should be put in place and what potential jobs will
result is the beginning. From there a support structures must be
established. These include state and local government financing
packages, emphasizing local hiring practices, public-private
partnerships, and effective state and local ordinances.
Well-planned programs will allow more low-income youth to be able to
experience their true potential and reap the benefits of a good job in
the new energy economy. At a time of economic decline and rising
unemployment, the timing for a new jobs program couldn't be better. Just
ask Alvarro Jasso about his feelings at the top of that windmill. "How
can I explain it?... If you get the right time of day, if you get that
sunrise, it's a sight to see."

KJ Meyeris an
organizer and advocate for a variety of renewable energy initiatives. He
lives in Denver, Co., where he occasionally takes time off from paying
his law school loans to play with his dog in the mountains.

Authors: Keegan King
Originally posted in The New Mexico Independent:http://newmexicoindependent.com/6310/green-collar-is-the-new-blue-collar
This past weekend I read Van Jones’ latest book, “The Green-Collar Economy”. Van Jones is the founder and executive director of Green for All based in Oakland, California. Green for All, along with 1Sky and the Apollo Alliance, has led the charge for green jobs in America. The organization I lead –New Mexico Youth Organized — has worked closely with these groups on our local green Jobs initiative here in Albuquerque. The goal of the national campaign is to create millions of new “green” family-supporting jobs. From agriculture to renewable energy to efficiency, we stand at the forefront of a Green-Collar revolution led by Van Jones.
If you’ve ever heard Van Jones speak you know that it’s an inspiring experience. “The Green-Collar Economy” was no different –- I was struck several times by the eloquent explanation of complex federal legislation, the innovative policies that Green for All is working on, and the great messaging that Van Jones is known for –- like Hoopties for Hybrids.
The Hooptie, also known as a beater, clunker or jalopy, is a car that contributes to both excessive amounts of carbon emissions and the daily expenses of millions of Americans. Hoopties for Hybrids is a program that would create a low-interest loan to help people trade-up for a hybrid. The book makes it clear that with smart policies like this we can lift millions of Americans from oppressive prices at the pumps and, in one fell swoop, reduce greenhouse gases.
The Dual Crisis
“The Green-Collar Economy” could serve as a guidebook for policy-makers, activists and entrepreneurs on how to build a more just and equitable society for people and the planet. Van Jones expertly
illustrates that the issues that will define the 21st century are two-fold –- a dual crisis of socioeconomic inequality and rampant environmental destruction. He points out that the basic economic
premise at work in America and in most developing nations is one based on an outdated model.
The era of exploiting unlimited natural resources and human capital, which developed during the Industrial Revolution, has outlived its usefulness. And now, because of the global predicament we find ourselves in, we have the opportunity to create a new model for economic growth, environmental conservation and equality. With new
principles to guide us, smart policies and a politics that cherishes people and our planet, we can meet the challenges of the current economic crisis and build a better world for our children.
Principles, Politics, Policies
Van Jones is very clear that without core principles to guide their movement even the best policies fail. And without smart politics and policies even the best principles fall flat. Through a strong alliance of labor, community, local, state and federal governments, the United States can lead the way in renewable energy technology and reducing carbon emissions. The stark reality is that unless we restore the image of America abroad and model good behavior, $10-a-gallon gas will be the least of our worries in a world fighting over land, water and the last remaining drops of oil. The Green for All alliance is the first step in creating the political will necessary to transition our country to clean, green energy.
Eco-populism
Another important point the book makes is that if we hope to transition our economy to one built on all things green we must adopt a more inclusive movement. Jones uses a great analogy to describe the rift between poor folks in America and environmentalists. In rural and inner-city neighborhoods folks are more concerned with “Pookie” –getting a job than the plight of polar bears. Over the past century the conservationist movement has struggled to include people of color and less affluent communities. In places like New Mexico, there is a huge divide between tribal and land-grant communities and environmentalists. Historically there has been an all-or-nothing mentality from enviros that overlooked the cultural subsistence and economic development of poor people. But in “The Green-Collar Economy,” Jones shows that if we adopt the politics of eco-populism we can save the polar bears and make sure “Pookie” gets a job.
New Mexico
I grew up in McCarty’s village in Acoma. Acoma Pueblo is about 60 miles west of Albuquerque. My family moved to Albuquerque so that my father could work. Before that he was a land surveyor and before that he and my grandfather worked in the uranium mines in Grants. I have been blessed to work in a field that I enjoy and that lets me to make a difference. And while I carry a reverence for nature that is an inheritance from my family, I have never thought of myself as an environmentalist.
Right now we are seeing the effects of years of exploitation in New Mexico. There is a whole generation of Hispanic, Native and Anglo men and women who now struggle to breathe and have developed terrible diseases from inhaling dust from these mines. Tailings that were never cleaned up now contribute to water contamination throughout the state. In addition, skyrocketing rates of cancer and birth defects in the Four Corners area have been linked to coal-powered plants.
Our people have a right to work. They have a right to put food on the table without inadvertently contaminating their family. They have a right to bring home a steady paycheck without desecrating the land or their traditions. Instead of stalling with more nuclear plants and supposed “clean coal” factories, we have the ability to create new industries and millions of jobs in clean energy now. If even a fraction of the money that goes to subsidize Big Oil went to renewable energy research, we could begin to transition our economy immediately. Instead of working in conditions that harm the earth and the health of future generations, we can create jobs that nurture all of our communities.
New Mexico is ready for Green Jobs now. Are you?

Authors: harris
Check out this blog post by Van Jones on the Huffington Post.
Reprinted here:

Maybe the Wall Street bailout package is a good idea.
But the only thing I know for sure is this: even if we avert a total economic meltdown, we will still be in a recession. Millions of Americans still will be without jobs -- or in real fear of losing their job. Worse, we will still be dependent on dirty fuels like oil and coal, which are draining our monetary resources and cooking the planet.
The Earth and everyday people will still be suffering.
I wrote a new book to propose elegant solutions for our economic and environmental crises. The Green Collar Economy offers a green cure for the dilemmas we face and the financial messes we are in.
At this point, I am willing to concede that Wall Street and the big bankers need some propping up. But while we are at it, we should find a way to bail out the little people -- and the planet, too.
So how about a green bailout -- to help both? We already took an important step in that direction today. Perhaps the only thing in the whole bailout package that is inarguably good is the support for the U.S. clean energy sector.
After unconscionable delays, Congress finally gave a boost to our wind power industries and our solar power industries by extending the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and the Production Tax Credit. The price tag was about $9 billion, but the cost was entirely offset, mostly by changes that were made to oil and gas tax rules.
What does America get for that no-net-cost shuffling of the tax code? Plenty. The 8-year extension of ITC alone will create 440,000 jobs. And $230 billion of private investment would be created in the solar and other industries, according to a recent report by Navigant Consulting.
Green Bailout: Half The Money, Twice The Impact
That's a good start. Let's keep going. An all-out "green bailout" could give America TWICE the bang ... for half the bucks.
We just found $700 billion. Let's find another $350 billion. That's half the price tag of the Wall Street rescue - which has no guarantee of success. But with $350 billion investment, we absolutely and positively could retrofit and repower America using clean, green energy - and create millions of new jobs, in the process.
A new report just released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors says that we can create over 4 million green jobs if we aggressively shift away from traditional fossil fuels toward alternative energy and a significant improvement in energy efficiency.
Another report just released by the Political Economy Research Institute and the Center for American Progress shows that the U.S. can create two million jobs over two years by investing $100 billion in a green economic recovery plan. The report also shows that this investment would create four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.
Green For All and its partners are proposing a Clean Energy Corps that includes a revolving loan fund to finance the ambitious retrofitting of the nation's building stock. An investment of less than $3 billion per year would provide financing and can be expected to create close to 120,000 green jobs a year and 600,000 over five years, while also lowering home heating and electricity bills for homeowners and small businesses.
Clean Energy Corps: Retrofitting & Repowering America
The United States should have a Clean Energy Corps, combining community service with green-collar job training. Such a program could get hundreds of thousands of people ready to go to work, greening the nation's infrastructure.
The New Apollo Program is a comprehensive economic investment strategy developed by the Apollo Alliance to build America 's 21st century clean energy economy and dramatically cut energy bills for families and businesses. It estimates that the investment of $500 billion over the next 3 years and create more than 5 million high quality green-collar jobs.
It will accelerate the development of the nation's vast clean energy resources and move us toward energy security, climate stability, and economic prosperity. And it will transform America into the global leader of the new green economy.
A massive green economic stimulus package like this could even pay for ITSELF in energy savings and in tax dollars generated by new jobs and businesses.
As Thomas Friedman says, "We don't just need a bailout. We need a buildup." In my new book, The Green-Collar Economy, I spell out other green remedies for our economy.
Friedman: Not Just a Bailout, A Buildup
The bottom line is: we can't base a national economy on credit cards. But we can base it on solar panels, wind turbines, smart bio-fuels and massive, a program to weatherize every building and home in America.
Rather than giving platinum parachutes to those who wrecked the economy, let's throw a green lifeline to the ordinary people who want to rebuild it. We can't drill and burn our way out of our present mess. But we can invent and invest our way out.
Our present economy is based on consumption, debt and environmental destruction. The next U.S. economy should be based on production, smart savings and environmental restoration. You can't have a stable economy based on unregulated greed at the top. But you can have one based on unleashing green, at the bottom.
Millions of green jobs would be a Main Street solution to the Wall Street meltdown.
America's number one resource is not oil or mortgages. Our number one resource is our people.
And it is time to put our people back to work - retrofitting and re-powering America.